News

Novel Margarita by Anni Kytömäki is nominated for the most prestigious literary award of the year, Finlandia Prize!

The jury has stated about the book:

”Margarita is a literary pearl – or rather, a freshwater pearl mussel, with a surprise within. The text is an example of high quality literature in the best tradition of Finnish environmental writing, stimulating the reader’s little grey cells. At the same time, the novel is a portrayal of a new way of thinking, brought up by the era of crises.”

Margarita is a family saga of sorts and a story about the untold history of forests and people. In the 1940s and 50s forests, men and women were shouldered with well-meaning duties. However, the success stories have another side to them. Fulfilling the societal obligations turns the characters’ lives with fateful consequences.

Have a look at the wonderful video with the author presenting her book.

Finlandia Prize is the most important literary award in Finland, given annually in three categories: the best novel, the best children’s or YA book and the best nonfiction book of the year. The award sum is 30,000 euros. 

Kytömäki already received one Finlandia nomination, for her debut novel Goldheart (2014), which also won the Torch-Bearer Prize and the Blogistania Prize and rose immediately to the bestseller list; its sales figures have since topped 20,000 copies. Her second novel Stone Weaver (2017) was also a bestseller #3 and a critical success.

Previously, several other HLA’s authors have received the award in the category of the best novel, including 
Kari Hotakainen (The Trench Road, 2002)
Pirkko Saisio (The Red Letter of Farewell, 2003)
Mikko Rimminen (Red Nose Day, 2010)
Ulla-Lena Lundberg (Ice, 2012)
Riikka Pelo (Our Earthly Life, 2013)
Jukka Viikilä (Watercolours from a Seaside City, 2016) and 
Juha Hurme (Headland, 2017).

Past nominees for the prize include
Alexandra Salmela (27, or Death makes an Artist, 2010)
Jenni Linturi (For Fatherland, 2011)
Aki Ollikainen (White Hunger, 2012)
Anni Kytömäki (Goldheart, 2014)
Selja Ahava (Things that Fall from the Sky, 2015)
Peter Sandström (Autumn Apples, 2016)
Pauliina Rauhala (Harvest, 2018) and, once more
Mikko Rimminen (If It Looks Like It, 2019).

It was also announced earlier this week that another HLA author, Anja Portin, is nominated for Finlandia Junior Prize for her children’s novel Radio Popov.

Congratulations to the author and fingers crossed!

Radio Popov by Anja Portin is nominated for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Junior Prize! As the jury stated:

“A warm adventure story is about lonely children whose worries are heard after all. The book has elements of a classic fairytale novel and a lovely narrating voice. The radio transmitter invented by Popov brings a certain frame to the story, where abandoned children start helping each other out.“

The author has stated that the nomination feels extremely important, as it shows that the book has reached the reader, which is the always the best reward a writer can hope for.

“My book ideas always begin with some particular image or situation. This time, it was about a lonely boy who is trying to get some sleep in his corridor. At the same time, I was reading a book about radio history, where inventor Aleksandr Popov was mentioned. […] It was surprisingly easy to find the narrator’s voice; it felt as if Alfred has long been silent and finally got an opportunity to tell his story which I only wrote down,” said Anja Portin.

The novel begins when a nine-year-old Alfred the Forgotten, virtually abandoned by his father, meets Amanda, a paperwoman for the Sharp Ears. An unforgettable adventure follows that changes the lives of many. After finding an old radio transmitter designed by a Russian physicist, A. S. Popov, Alfred starts making a secret, nightly radio broadcast that all the other forgotten children in the city listen to. The novel reminds of Roald Dahl’s classics, where children often experience quite miserable lives oppressed by quite horrible adults, but find refuge in new friendships and worlds on the border between reality and fantasy.

Finlandia Prize is the most important literary award in Finland, given annually in three categories: the best novel, the best children’s or YA book and the best nonfiction book of the year. The award sum is 30,000 euros. 

Previously, two other HLA’s authors have received the award in children’s and YA category: Sanna Mander (The Lost Key, 2017), Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen (Light, Light, Light, 2011), and last year, A Dog Called Cat Meets a Cat by Tomi Kontio and Elina Warsta was a nominee.

Congratulations to the author and fingers crossed!

Selja Ahava’s novel Things that Fall from the Sky, translated to English by Emily and Fleur Jeremiah and published by Oneworld, is longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2020.

As it is stated on the official website: “The  prize was established by the University of Warwick in 2017 to address the gender imbalance in translated literature and to increase the number of international women’s voices accessible by a British and Irish readership. In 2020 the prize is generously supported by the British Centre for Literary Translation and the British Comparative Literature Association.”

The jury has remarked the record number of submissions, totalling 132 eligible entires representing 34 languages and countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, Malaysia and Sudan. 16 titles made it to the longlist.

The judges said of this year’s nominees:

“This year’s longlist not only takes us from Sudan to Malaysia, and from Finland to Brazil. It is the most genre-bending longlist to date, encompassing lyric poetry and children’s fiction, crime writing and gastronomic memoir, an epistolary novel and a collection of letters, as well as the historical epic and the short story. On this occasion, the judges’ choices also showcase an outstanding group of previously untranslated works by great women writers of the twentieth century.”

The shortlist for the prize will be published in early November. The winner will be announced in an online ceremony on Thursday 26 November. You can read more about this year’s prize and other nominees on Warwick’s official website.

Things that Fall from the Sky has been one of the most internationally successful Finnish works of fiction, with foreign rights sold to 24 territories. Ahava’s latest novel, The Woman Who Loved Insects, came out in August to wonderful reviews and overwhelming interest from publishers around the globe.

Congratulations to the author and fingers crossed!