RIGHTS CATALOGUE ADULT FICTION AUTUMN 2017
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Kati Hiekkapelto | Nordic Noir
PhOTO: Aki Roukala
KATI HIEKKAPELTO (b. 1970) is a special needs teacher by training. She lives on an old farm on the island of Hailuoto in Northern Finland. Hiekkapelto has been an immigration’s teacher and lived in the Hungarian region of Serbia. Hiekkapelto’s first novel The Hummingbird was published in spring 2013 and was the start of the detective series featuring Anna Fekete.
The Hummingbird
The Defenceless
The Exiled
(Kolibri) PAGES: 381
(Suojattomat) PAGES: 301
(Tumma) PAGES: 303
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2013
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2014
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2016
Hungarian by ethnicity, Yugoslav by birth, one-time refugee Anna Fekete’s career as a detective begins in a northern Finnish coastal town. Although fully integrated into her new homeland, the young immigrant considers herself a stranger, perhaps most of all to herself. A young woman has been killed on a running trail, and a pendant depicting an Aztec god has been found in her possession. Another murder soon follows. All signs point to a serial killer. But can Anna catch the Hummingbird before he – or she – strikes again?
When an old man is found dead on the road, detective Anna Fekete is certain that there is more to the incident than meets the eye. Anna is led on a deadly trail where illegal immigration, drugs and, ultimately, murder threaten not only her beliefs, but her life. Amid the increasingly dangerous police investigations Anna finds herself racked with homesickness. Meanwhile, Anna’s partner Esko is investigating the activities of an immigrant gang. Deportation orders and raids result in desperate measures by gang members – and the police themselves. Then a bloody knife is found in the snow and the two cases come together in ways that no one could have predicted.
Anna Fekete decides she will spend the summer relaxing in the region of her birth-place, in a small Serbian town. While cele brating the local wines, Anna’s purse is stolen. It doesn’t take long to find the thief – dead on the riverbank. The local police is reluctant to conduct a proper investigation, so Anna takes matters into her own hands. The trail of clues unexpectedly leads Anna to her own family, to closely guarded secrets concealing a horrendous travesty of justice. As layer after layer of corruption, deceit and guilt are revealed, Anna is caught up in the refugee crisis spreading like wildfire across Europe.
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Nordic Noir | Jesse Haaja & Helena Waris
Tuomas Nyholm
(Rendel) PAGES: 230 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
Read more on rendelmovie.com
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PHoto: Jesse Haaja
First ever big budget Finnish superhero movie – now also a novel!
PHoto: Juuli Aschan
Photo & artwork: Jesse Haaja
Jukka Rämö is a financial manager living an idyllic life with his family in central Finland until a series of bad decisions destroys it all. Jukka becomes Rendel, a masked superhero, who sets out to take revenge on a multinational drug corporation, VALA. Pekka Erola, VALA’s CEO, holds the city government and his brutal son in an iron grip. As the stakes rise, a strike team of international assassins led by the one-eyed Radeki also appear on the stage. Rendel is the official novel adaptation of the movie with the same name.
HELENA WARIS (b. 1970) is a four-time recipient of the Finnish Tolkien Society’s Mirrormere prize for best Finnish fantasy writer. In addition to fantasy, Waris also writes dystopias and thrillers, and is currently moving into horror and comedy. A film adaptation of her Netherholme trilogy is also in the works.
JESSE HAAJA is a movie director who made his first sketches of Rendel in grammar school. From its beginnings as a small-budget indie project, the film has blossomed into a 1.3 million-euro juggernaut bound for international distribution.
PhOTO: kari hautala 2016
Rendel
TUOMAS NYHOLM (b. 1976) is a sports journalist and author. He has previously written two novels and a critically acclaimed, bestselling biography of a Finnish ice hockey star. The Lion is his first thriller.
Eppu Nuotio | Cosy crime
Garden Crime
The White Flowers of Poison Ellen Spring investigates 1
The Lion
(Myrkkykeiso) PAGES: 252 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
(Leijona) PAGES: 365
No-one has even come close to him, The Lion. But now the hunt of the century has begun. Inspector Daniel da Costa is recruited by the highest ranks for a secret mission – a mission that won’t exist in the official police reports. He has no choice but to leave behind his five-year-old daughter and his wife. Daniel and his Brazilian partner devote themselves to catching the cruellest criminal the city has ever seen. At the same time, a man, a silent hunter as elusive as a shadow, has landed in Lisbon. He’s back to bring tough justice – and is always one step ahead of the police. Will the Lion finally be caught and at what cost? This is the first book in a thrilling and atmospheric noir series featuring Daniel da Costa.
Photo: Marjo Tynkkynen
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
Ellen Spring, recently retired and widowed, is in the prime of her life at the age of 58. She loves to travel and is obsessed by the perennials in her garden. However, Ellen is also an exceptionally perceptive individual, with a curious mind and an ability to smell a rat. A young mother, worn down by the obligations of running the family, takes some time off alone at their summer cottage. Her husband is overwhelmed by the sudden responsibility of taking care of their young daughter. Luckily, Ellen Spring has the time and the means to help. But when the mother doesn’t return in time, it seems Ellen has more work to do than she originally prepared herself for. How did this beautiful young woman with an apparently perfect life disappear? This first book in the cosy crime series introduces us to a charming, modern day Miss Marple.
EPPU NUOTIO (b. 1962) writes for adults, children, theatre and TV. Nuotio’s thrillers have been critical, and commercial successes in Finland. Her previous and very popular six-part series features Pii Marin, a heroine full of contradictions. In her novels, Eppu Nuotio emphasises current events and headline topics such as racism and multiculturalism.
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Photo: Tommi Tuomi
Nordic Noir | Reijo Mäki
REIJO MÄKI is a best-selling Finnish author, known for his dry sense of humour and intriguing detective novels. Mäki published his first novel in 1985 and has since published almost 40 books; 26 of them feature Jussi Vares, private eye. Vares is now a well-known movie character with his own fan club.
More Jussi Vares titles The Cowboy The Indian The Sherriff
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Pale In Jail
The Hot Dog
The Volcano
(Kakolan kalpea) PAGES: 422
(Hot dog) PAGES: 463
(Tulivuori) PAGES: 445
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2016
FIRST PUBLISHED IN:
When the private detective Jussi Vares walks out of a bar, there is a strange sight on the street: smirking little devils and creatures with leather wings and horns. Then, he blacks out. When he regains consciousness in the hospital, Vares finds out someone had spiked his drink. Who has Vares managed to upset? And who is the mysterious, dangerous guy wearing the fedora?
A savaged body is found in a bar, while a gunman in an orange hoodie takes off without a word. The feared and hated ‘king of the hood’ is dead. Three years later, Jussi Vares meets a reckless old acquaintance, an ex-police officer who has new information about the unresolved case. Mysteriously, the ex-police disappears shortly after sharing the new details...
An ex-girlfriend of Vares’ is murdered in the Canary Islands. Jussi flies south and finds himself on an all-inclusive trip to the dark heart of paradise, where everything, including life, is cheap. Vares' most personal gig to date takes him to misty mountainsides and poolside patios. This Vares adventure is a package deal of suspense and inappropriate humor. It’s as bracing as the day’s first sip of Long Island ice tea.
2015
Helena Waris | Fantasy and Young Adult
(Linnunsitoja) PAGES: 17o FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
As a beginning of a new trilogy, Bird Binder is an ingeniously woven mystery set in a world ruled by the omniscient Machines where freedom hangs on the delicate wings of the birds. The helicopter takes Zemi out to sea, to a lighthouse island beyond the watchful eyes of the State, the Chasms and the Machines. The island forms the base of the resistance movement, where no-one needs to declare why they are there or where they came from. A dovecote sits atop the lighthouse. The birds carry messages across the sea; the only method of communication not governed by the Machine. The birds are the only way the Resistance can survive.
A Path Drawn to a Dream (Uniin piirretty polku) PAGES: 464
The Wolf Children (Sudenlapset) PAGES: 436
Winterblooded (Talviverinen) PAGES: 334
FIRST PUBLISHED
FIRST PUBLISHED
IN: 2011
IN: 2013
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2009
PHoto: Jesse Haaja
Bird Binder
Netherholme trilogy (Pohjankontu-trilogia) Stout-hearted thundermen, fearless maidens, romance and dashing wordplay – the landscapes of primeval Finland are ruled by shamanic powers and eternal love. The world is sliding inevitably towards a long winter. Only one family – that of Ailegais, Arni, and Troi with their spouses and children – will survive it. The acclaimed Netherholme trilogy is Nordic fantasy at its strongest with atmospheric writing, tortured characters and feel the of the ancient powers at the reader's fingertips. This family saga in the world of old, with its legends and beliefs, wilderness and lakes, fells and villages, will enchant readers of all ages. Each book in the trilogy has won the Kuvastaja prize awared by the Finnish Tolkien Society.
HELENA WARIS (b. 1970) writes atmospheric fantasy novels for young adults, where the stories are based in a world that draws inspiration from Finnish folklore. Her most recent books present a new side of the author: mystery adventure writer, whose page-turners can be compared to those of Veronica Roth. Helena Waris has won the Kuvastaja price, awarded by the Finnish Tolkien Society, for an unrivalled four times.
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Historical fiction | Jari Tervo
Photo: Pekka Holmström
We have now received the most important work to date of Jari Tervo’s career. The drama intensifies steadily in this visionary and masterfully constructed work… Tervo shakes us awake. – Helsingin Sanomat
The Matriarch (Matriarkka) PAGES: 448 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2016
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JARI TERVO is one of the most established and popular names in Finnish literature since the 1990’s, and an incomparable storyteller. Tervo slips deftly from intimately exploring an individual psyche to portraying societal, human and historical levels with broad brushstrokes. He writes about Russia and the Baltic countries much in the same vein as internationally known Finnish writers like Sofi Oksanen and Katja Kettu. Jari Tervo’s novels has sold over a million copies in Finland.
The Matriarch is a turbulent novel of migration in which whole ethnic groups are on the move. In the past and in the present. The Ingrians are a people, related to the Finns, who resided in the Soviet Union. They were massacred in a series of events that could, and even ought to be, called a genocide. The life of Aamu Lambsdaughter and her family, originally from a little village called Clam by the Gulf of Finland, is composed of incredible events and tragic adventures. After getting deported to the cruel arctic wilderness in Siberia, the young Aamu is abducted to become a concubine to a Samoyed clan chef. She manages to escape and reunite with her childhood friend and lover. They walk the thousands of kilometers back to Clam – only to live for years in hiding, in a vast, pitch-dark grave. Perhaps the luck has turned, when their tribal brothers in Finland welcome the Ingrians to return “home” during the Second World War. But the course of history has other plans for them.
Sirpa Kähkönen | Historical fiction Tragic and exciting, wonderfully written. The main character of this book is also St Petersburg, aka Petrograd aka Leningrad, in which the street children affected by the mistreatments of Communism try to survive amid the dirty waters of the sewers. – SUOMEN KUVALEHTI
photo: Tommi Tuomi
Granite Man (Graniittimies) PAGES: 334 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2014
SIRPA KÄHKÖNEN (b. 1964) is one of the most acclaimed writers of upmarket historical fiction in Finland. Her beautiful language creates precise literary depictions and strong atmospheres. Kähkönen is above all exceptional at portraying women and children, their challenges and their experiences. In her novels, she often observes the life of civilians in times of crisis and how utopias and ideologies affect different individuals. Her novel Granite Man was nominated for The Nordic Council Literature Prize and the Finlandia Prize.
What happened to the young people that believed in the promise of freedom? Did the Soviet Union meet the hopes of those who fled east to escape persecution at home? Ilja, Klara and Lavr have left their home country for the realm of freedom, vowing never to return. They build families and extended families for themselves from among their comrades. They grow attached to the city, though it doesn’t respond to their affection. The roads and streets are crowded with homeless children. Klara starts to work at a shelter, rescuing those she can. But when Petrograd becomes Leningrad, life gets too dangerous for the young woman whose roots arouse suspicion.
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Historical fiction | Antti Tuuri Antti Tuuri is a virtuoso of storytelling.
The Et ern
Movie al Road premie Septemring ber 2017
– HELSINGIN SANOMAT
The Eternal Road is Antti Tuuri at his best.
– ILKKA
The Eternal Road (Ikitie) PAGES: 431 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2011
Jussi Ketola brought a brand of socialism with him from America. One night in the summer of 1930, the men of a right wing movement abduct him from his home and beat him up. The journey continues along the Lapua Movement thugs’ staging route, the Eternal Road, towards Russia. Once taken across the border, Ketola works on a collective farm, established by other migrants. When the Finnish purges of Karelia begin, he decides to return to his homeland for good.
The Alchemist Series
Occultism, adventure, affairs of the heart and the ever present threat of bankruptcy. Two high-spirited historical novels based on the eventful lives of two Finnish men who devote themselves to alchemy.
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The Alchemists 1 Earthly Love (Alkemistit. Maallinen rakkaus) PAGES: 382 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2013 August Nordenskjöld is introduced to alchemy at his home, by an uncle attempting to make gold. A student at the Academy of Turku, August delves into the writings of Swedenborg and continues his studies in alchemy in Stockholm and London. In the Winter of 1787, August starts making gold in the Finnish town of Uusikaupunki. The process is challenging; the alchemists must keep the furnace burning for a year without fading. As they run out of funds, August flees to Stockholm to escape his debtors.
The Alchemists 2 Heavenly nuptials (Alkemistit II. Taivaalliset häät) PAGES: 397 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2014 August Nordenskjöld has run into bankruptcy in Uusikaupunki, fled to Stockholm and left his assistant Bergklint to suffer the jibes of the creditors. Soon heartening news comes from Sweden: King Gustav III has agreed to fund a new attempt to make gold.
phOTO: Jouni Harala
Antti Tuuri | Historical fiction
The Tango Boys (Tangopojat) PAGES: 317 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2016
Sauli works various jobs and plays the accordion in the a dance orchestra in Ostrobothnia. When the soloist singer – Sauli’s wife – leaves for Sweden, the orchestra breaks apart. Sauli follows her and enlists in the Volvo foundry, where he cleans casts. The work is heavy, the Finns and Yugoslavians are seen as a pariah class. The Tango Boys tell the story of a young Finnish migrant in the 1960s, when drastic changes emptied the Finnish countryside and sent thousands of Finns to Sweden.
ANTTI TUURI (b. 1944) graduated in graphic engineering in 1972, but devotes himself to writing since 1983. He is very often a portrayer of the middle class, a behaviourist characterized by a precise style, coloured by Ostrobothnian humour. Tuuri uses language accurately, with great clarity of narrative. He pays a lot of attention to man as a link in the natural chain, living at nature’s mercy. Tuuri's works have been translated into 25 languages and he has been awarded with the Nordic Council Literature Prize.
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Gift books | Essays and quotes | Tove Jansson
Work and Love
©Tove Jansson TM
Tove Jansson (1914-2001), Finnish-Swedish writer and artist, achieved worldwide fame as the creator of the Moomins, written and illustrated between 1945 and 1970. The books about the Moomins have been translated into more than 50 languages and are still in print all over the world today. The Moomins were only a part of Jansson’s prodigious output. Already admired in Nordic art circles as a painter, cartoonist and illustrator, she would go on to write a series of classic novels and short stories. She remains Scandinavia’s best loved author. Tove Jansson’s work reflected the tenets of her life: her love of family, of nature, and her insistence on freedom to pursue her art. “Work and love” was the motto she chose for herself and her approach to both was joyful and uncompromising.
Happiness. A Book for Lovers
Tove Jansson – A Gift of Words
The Boulevard and Other Texts
(Vi: en romantisk bok för älskande) PAGES: 80 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1965
(Tove Jansson – Sanojen lahja) PAGES: 540 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
(Bulevarden och andra texter) PAGES: 201
This beautiful gift book for lovers and their memories, has recently been rediscovered and carefully restored. Written by Tove Jansson and illustrated by Signe “Ham” Hammarsten Jansson, Tove’s mother, this book was first published in Swedish in 1965 and has not been re-published since. The perfect gift for weddings, anniversaries and treasured moments.
Tove Jansson had a passion for art, life, love – and a gift of words. This beautiful book contains selected quotes by Tove Jansson, spanning across her full literary output. Tove’s words will inspire and offer hope, courage, comfort and joy to readers of all ages.
The Boulevard and Other Texts contains fifteen unknown short stories and illustrated essays, published in various papers by Tove Jansson, but never before as a book. The texts will add another dimension to Tove’s multifaceted work. This richly illustrated book has been edited by Tove Jansson expert Sirke Happonen.
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
Tove Jansson | Fiction
Sculptor’s Daughter: A Childhood Memoir (Bildhuggarens dotter) PAGES: 192 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1968 Tove Jansson’s first book for adults. Her childhood memories captures the enchantments and fears of growing up in Helsinki in the beginning of the twentieth century. The book offers sharp observations on the mysteries of winter ice, the bonhomie of balaika parties, and the vastness of Christmas viewed from beneath the tree.
The Summer Book (Sommarboken) PAGES:160 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1972
Messages. A selection of short stories (Meddelande) PAGES: 303
Travelling Light (Resa med lätt bagage) PAGES: 224 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1987
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1998
A novel about seemingly endless summers of discovery. An elderly artist and her six year old granddaughter spend the summer on a tiny island in the Finnish archipelago, their solitude disturbed only by migrating birds, sudden storms and an occasional passing boat.
Drawn from youth and older age, spanning most of the twentieth century, this is a marvellous collection of Tove Jansson’s prose, scattered with insights and home truths. Messages features several stories from The Sculptor’s Daughter as well as her most appreciatied later stories.
A collection of twelve short stories about inner and outer journeys. About people in new surroundings and new relationships. Philosophical and profound, with Jansson’s signature deceptive lightness, this book is guaranteed to surprise and transport.
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Fiction | Tove Jansson
Fair Play (Rent spel) PAGES: 152 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1989
Letters from Klara and Other Stories (Brev från Klara) PAGES: 175
The Listener
The True Deceiver
(Lyssnerskan) PAGES: 192
(Den ärliga bedragaren) PAGES: 208 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1982
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1971
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1991
Fair Play depicts the love between two older women, a writer and an artist, as they work side-byside, travel together and share summers on a remote Finnish island. Jansson’s philosophical prose about human generosity and respect perfectly echoes her signature subjects; work and love.
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Tove Jansson explores the com plicated games and relationships between people in this short story collection. Letters from Klara showcases the differences in relationships and how a simple letter can reveal just as much of the sender as of the receiver.
The Listener was the first of Tove Jansson’s books to be published after the death of her mother, the point at which she declared the Moomin series over. This collection of short stories is different from Jansson’s previous work; fragmentary, starting and stopping in the middle of things, concerned more with situations than plots. Fascinatingly, the illustrator Edward Gorey appears in one of the stories saying “It’s the unexpressed that interests me … it’s a mistake to clarify everything”, and that could well stand for Jansson’s writing here, too.
The lies we tell ourselves and the lies we tell others – this is the subject of Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver, her most unnerving and unpredictable novel. Here Jansson takes a darker look at the subjects that are the core of her writing; solitude and community, art and life, love and hate.
Tove Jansson | Fiction
The Field of Stones
Notes from an Island
(Stenåkern) EXTENT: 108
(Anteckningar från en ö) PAGES: 103 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1996
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1984
The Doll’s House (Art in Nature) (Dockskåpet) PAGES: 208
Sun City (Solstaden) PAGES: 160 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1974
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 1978
Recently retired journalist Jonas leaves the city to spend the summer in the country with his two daughters. Tasked with writing the biography of the unpleasant ‘Y’, he soon finds it morphing into the story of his own damaged family life. Written with a light sense of humor, the dark contents of this book is easily accessible.
Notes from the island of Klov harun, with illustrations by Tuulikki Pietilä, the book covers all aspects of Jansson’s and Pietilä’s time in the Finnish archipelago. Also covering the eventual decision to give up their summers on the island, as ever showing Jansson’s willingness to discuss the more difficult aspects of life.
A collection of 12 short stories about obsession and ambition. Witty, sharp and often disquieting, Tove Jansson’s stories looks at human existence, where puzzles and uncertainty, even illness and danger, have positive and magical potential. The stories also reveal the fault-lines in our relationship with art, both as artists and as consumers.
A darker version of a perfect world, mirrored through the population of a Florida retirement home. This book about alienation, abandonment and ageing looks at the subject of the ever present death and how some people simply choose to ignore it.
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©Tove Jansson TM
Moomin Comics | Tove Jansson
Moomin Collected Comics vol 1-10
The fantastic comic adventures of the Moomins are now available as single story, colour comic books. 14 titles available now, and more to come! 14 titles PAGES: 48-64
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The Moomin comics were originally created by Tove Jansson and her brother Lars Jansson for the Evening News in London, at the time the world’s biggest newspaper. The comic was commissioned in the 50’s and the creative siblings produced the daily adventures for over 20 years. The comics were syndicated to 120 newspapers in over 40 countries, reaching more than 20 million readers daily. The comics are now being collected and published in chronological order and once again attaining worldwide success. Moomins on the Riviera Moomin and the Martians Moomin’s Desert Island Moomin and the Golden Tail Moomin and the Comet Moomin Builds a House Moomin and the Sea Moomin Falls in Love Moomin’s Winter Follies Moominvalley Turns Jungle Club Life in Moominvalley Moomin and Family Life Moominmamma’s Maid Moomin begins a New Life
10 volumes collected comics in b/w approx PAGES:approx 106 pages per volume
Moomin Deluxe Anniversary Edition PAGES: 448 Collected comics box with sketch material and poster.
Mauri Kunnas | Beatles comics BEATLES with an A. Birth of a band (Piitles. Tarina erään rockbändin alkutaipaleesta) PAGES: 80 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2012
Kunnas the cartoonist’s smashing tribute to the world’s most legendary rock band; the first beats of the Beatles’ career in words and images as only Mauri Kunnas could tell them. In this comic book, featuring four-colour illustrations throughout, Mauri Kunnas tells the story of four lads from Liverpool who love to play music, head for the clubs of Hamburg to do some gigs – and end up world-famous. The book offers thoroughly researched information from the core of pop culture and rock history, hilarious moments and details that not even dedicated fans remember having heard before – and all of this told with a Kunnas’ characteristic raucous humour and masterly drawing skills.
MAURI KUNNAS (b. 1950) is undoubtedly one of Finland’s most successful children’s book authors today. He has published nearly 50 books, which have been translated into 34 languages and sold almost 9 million books in 36 countries. Kunnas is also widely appreciated by adults, particularly for his comics about the Beatles.
photo: Katja Lösönen
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Debu novel t
Fiction | Cristina Sandu
(Valas nimeltä Goliat) PAGES: Approx. 300 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
photo: MARJO TYNKKYNEN
The Whale Called Goliath CRISTINA SANDU (b. 1989) is originally from Helsinki but is currently living in the UK and studying literature at Oxford University. Her debut novel The Whale Called Goliath will be published in September 2017.
The nostalgic summer holidays of Alba’s childhood were spent in a small rural village in the Romanian countryside. But as she gets older, these memories are overshadowed by secrets and scars, dating back to the years when the village suffered under the dictatorship. When Alba, now in her thirties, travels back to the village to bury her grandfather, her family history begins to flood into her in the midst of the wake, her grandfather lying in the dim light of the kitchen table and the local burial rites gathering the whole village together. Aside from family affairs, Alba is also searching for a resolution to her complicated love story, a story scarred by distance. She can’t let go of the squinty-eyed Romanian philosophy scholar with the mahogany leather bag that smells of encounters and departures, of airport terminals and train stations. The people of the mysterious village tell a tale of earthquakes, a bride from a far-away Northern land and a whale that travelled the seven seas. This enjoyably rich, multi-layered and mature debut novel is heavily rooted in the legends, myths and fairy tales that entwine with the faith of the persecuted.
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Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo | Fiction In Transit is a major postmodern novel
photo: Niklas Sandström
– österbottens tidning
HANNELE MIKAELA TAIVASSALO (b. 1974) is one of the most exciting and fresh literary authors in Finland today. Her unique, feminine voice, distinct spark and exceptional sensitivity to the rythm of language makes her truly stand out. In her novels, written in Swedish, Taivassalo explores the themes of continous movement, of leaving, of restlessness and the joy of discovering. She writes about desire and excels in describing erotic charge between her characters. Taivassalo has been awarded several prizes.
In Transit
Famished
Oh, Come See
PAGES: 459
(Svulten) PAGES: 246
(Åh, kom och se här) PAGES: 150
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2016
FIRST PUBLISHED IN:
When she was younger, Galadriel, G, would lay on the floor in the yellow house and dream of New Orleans, The North Pole and of wonderful places close to the equator. She left as soon as she could, set her life in London for a while, then in Los Angeles, then Bombay. G has loved passionately, desired the forbidden, and transformed irrevocably. Now she is back in the yellow house, and has brought The Stranger with her. Is she capable of sharing her life?
2013
Famished is a story about the last vampire, Jorunn Själfhämnd. In the late 1700’s, the daughter of a tailor, she accepted an offer of love from baron von B., a love above her own stand. It ended fatally. She now wanders the streets of Helsinki, hungry and with one desire: to die. But first, she seeks the family von B., in order to get her revenge.
FIRST PUBLISHED IN:
2010
A woman with blonde hair dies on the floor of the Opera House on a sunny afternoon. This is the beginning of the novel, and it is where the story ends. The story is about the people carried on the passenger ship from Helsinki to Stockholm and back. In one city, a child is left alone. In the other, the blonde woman has a passionate affair with a man called The Baron. The question is: How fragile is the mind, and how easily is the body broken?
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Fiction | Riikka Pulkkinen Pulkkinen bravely rejects irony, aiming unashamedly – KALEVA for ‘the highest note’. Good for her.
The Best of All Possible Worlds (Paras mahdollinen maailma) PAGES: 350 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2016 The tragedy that took place in Berlin tears apart a family: a mother who has made a horrible mistake, a father who cannot find a way out of his sorrow, and a daughter who misremembers. Theatre School graduate Aurelia is the same age as free Europe: she was born on the same day the Berlin Wall fell. Now Aurelia is on the threshold of her breakthrough: a cult director has cast her in the main role in his upcoming production. Meanwhile, Aurelia’s father is in the hospital, mute.
Photo credit: Jouni Harala
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RIIKKA PULKKINEN (b. 1980) is among the foremost names of the new generation of Finnish literary authors. Her debut novel, The Limit, was met with rave reviews and immediate sales success in Finland. She came to the attention of international literary circles with her second novel, True. Nowadays Pulkkinen is one of the best known contemporary Finnish writers internationally: her works have been translated into nearly twenty languages. Pulkkinen’s novels are compelling stories told in gracefully flowing prose; family sagas exploring the closely guarded secrets of the past and their impact on people.
True (Totta) PAGES: 333 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2010
Was it just another affair by a married artist, or a betrayal ruining a girl’s life? Who speaks the truth? Elsa is dying. Her husband Martti and daughter Eleonoora are trying to get used to the idea of losing her, although they’re crushed with sorrow. As her mother’s existence becomes more fragile, the anchors of Eleonoora’s childhood memories are slipping away. Eleonoora’s daughter Anna easily loses herself in pondering the fates of passers-by. For her the world is full of stories. She learns by chance the story of Eeva, her mother’s nanny, of which the grandparents have been silent about for years. Eeva's forgotten story unravels, piece by piece. The young woman’s voice carries us back to the 1960s, a time when the pill had been invented but the pick-up line hadn’t. A tale of a mother and daughter unfolds, a story of how memory can deceive us, because it is the most merciful thing to do.
Riikka Pulkkinen | Fiction Riikka Pulkkinen depicts this story of three generations with skill and exceptional maturity.
– ELLIOT BAY BOOKS , USA
The Limit (Raja) PAGES: 399 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2006
Anja Aropalo is a middle-aged literature professor whose husband suffers from early Alzheimer’s disease. She swore to help him die once he began to lose his memory, but she struggles with her promise and doesn’t know when to step in. Meanwhile, her 16-year old self-mutilating niece, Mari, blossoms as she falls in love with her teacher. When he tries to end their affair, she starts cutting herself again. The passionate love between the student and teacher is witnessed by the innocent eyes of the elder’s 6-year old daughter.
Pulkkinen achieves something rare: she creates tension without the slightest flirt with the thriller genre, merely by arousing genuine interest in whether her characters will live or choose to die. – DAGENS NYHETER
The Book of Strangers (Vieras) PAGES: 301 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2012
Maria, a parish pastor wracked by a heated internal debate between responsibility and the need to escape, leaves her life in Finland behind and travels to New York. Maria meets a woman who opens the door to the world of dance. Step by step, she gains the courage to reflect on the secret she has carried with her across the ocean. What evil was done to that little girl who tried to make Finland her home, the girl whose diary Maria carries with her? The novel pulses with the restless rhythms of dance and the density of heavy, haunting night-time memories. Pulkkinen brings intelligence and all senses to the fore in her treatment of alienation, religion, and corporality. A gripping tale of the solitude that we carry within.
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Fiction | Katja Kallio A fierce, beautiful description of the will to live that persists even in isolation. – VIVA MAGAZINE
Amanda of the Night (Yön kantaja) PAGES: 380 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
Amanda breaks every rule made for women and manages to violate the etiquette for the insane. The likes of her are to be hidden from respectable folk. But even Amanda has a nagging need to belong.
photo: Elsa Kallonen
The young Amanda is a vagrant with a sharp mind and no intention of making do with the humble life offered to poor women. By chance, she meets a Frenchman who invites her to join him on his travels in Europe. The very next day, Amanda soars a thousand meters above the ground in a hot-air balloon. However, in Paris, Amanda’s mind weakens. After returning home, she gets sent to the infamous island of “Seili”, an asylum for incurably mentally ill women. This is a literary novel dedicated to all the unruly women of the world. The novel is inspired by the fate of Amanda Fredrika Aaltonen who, in 1891, was sent to asylum on Seili island at the age of 26. She never left the island again.
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KATJA KALLIO (b. 1968) is an acclaimed author and a deft portrayer of the human heart. She has written several novels, two of which have been made into feature films. In Finland, she is also a well-known journalist, columnist, and screenwriter.
Tua Harno | Fiction
Burnt Land (Oranssi maa) PAGES: 300 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2015
Sanna’s life has been defined by safe choices until, in her thirties and pregnant, she travels to the end of the Earth: a remote Australian mining town to do research for her master’s thesis. The town is run by rough-and-tumble men; the women either work at dingy pubs or push overflowing shopping carts down the supermarket aisles. Despite the bizarre environment, Sanna meets Martti, a miner with a restless history and soul, and they start an improbable yet passionate affair. In order to find the balance she so seeks, Sanna embarks on a trek across the desert. Soon she realizes she has made the biggest mistake of her life, entrusting her own well-being and that of her unborn child to a stranger's hands.
photo: Aino Huovio
Harno’s writing is lovely and porous, leaving space for discovery and invention. – HELSINGIN SANOMAT TUA HARNO (b. 1984) marched directly into the heart of the Finnish literary scene with her debut novel Those Who Stay (2013), a strong, lyrical, beautifully written work about roots, family and the songs of Leonard Cohen. Harno’s prose is defined by confidence, graceful narration, delicate characterisation and powerfully charged atmosphere. Her second novel Burnt Land has recently been published in the USA. Harno has an MA in drama from the Theatre Academy, Helsinki, and a law degree from the University of Helsinki.
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Fiction | Juha Itkonen Let The More Loving One Be Me
Summer Maple is a world-famous rock star at 30. But at 17, she was a girl named Suvi living in suburban small town in Finland. Now, rumoured mentally unstable, Summer Maple has disappeared during a trip to Africa. Let The More Loving One Be Me is a fiery love story and a novel about music. From the innocent days of high school bands to the slushy streets of Helsinki’s rock scene and the lofts and sound studios of Greenwich Village, it depicts the sweetness and bitterness and irrationality of longing, and the vital role music plays in our life. The novel received the State Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the Runeberg Prize.
photo: Dorit Salutskij
(Anna minun rakastaa enemmän) PAGES: 340 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2005
JOEL HAAHTELA (b. 1972) is an author and psychiatrist. He was inspired to specialise in psychiatry after reading Oliver Sacks’ book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. People’s stories are important to him in both of his professions, and the self is a key theme in his writing.
Bring Back The Butterflies (Palatkaa perhoset) PAGES: 350 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2016
JUHA ITKONEN (b. 1975) is one of Finland’s most talented, best-loved writers of his generation. Itkonen has written seven novels, rewarding readers with sensitive narration, true-to-life details, and complex, well-drawn characters that effortlessly capture the spirit of the era. Itkonen’s stories centre on families and familial 24
relationships, on love and lovers. With delicacy and precision, he portrays how it is the things we don’t dare say that often prove the most essential. Itkonen’s works have been published in German, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, and the author has received several awards and important nominations.
photo: Laura Malmivaara
Summer Maple’s glowing international career has taken its toll, and not only on her: her mother Leena has been there all along, managing everyday practicalities and raising Summer’s daughter, Rosa. Now Summer Maple has gone missing again. When a friend and former band-mate reaches out to Antti Salokoski asking for his help finding her, he’s sceptical. There’s no way he – Summer’s boyfriend from years ago – can be the right person to try to contact her. Or is he the only one she will trust?
Joel Haahtela | Fiction
Where Worlds Begin
Elena
The Butterfly Collector
Vanishing Point
(Mistä maailmat alkavat) PAGES: 301 FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017
(Elena)
(Perhoskerääjä) PAGES: 189
(Katoamispiste) PAGES: 160
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2003
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2006
FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2010
Visa is 16 years old and lives with his mother. He has an evening job as a cinema usher. One winter evening, a film about Vincent van Gogh awakens a frenzied urge to paint. His mind is filled with an intoxicating notion: he will become an artist. With a brush in his hand, Visa sees the world as if for the first time. Visa meets the melancholic Tapio at drawing classes. The boys dream of Chagall’s worlds and Continental cities. At the same time, Helmi, Tapio’s sister is everything he is not; confident and full of life.
A beautifully melancholic short novel about a lonely man and his obsession: an enigmatic woman called Elena. For three months, his mind has been occupied by a woman he happened to see in a park. He has waited for her there every day since. He has followed her, he has found out a little about her life, and imagined so much more. When she forgets her book on a step, he finds out her name: Elena. In the summer, Elena disappears. When he sees her again in the autumn, something breaks within him and he finally acknowledges why he is so obsessed by her.
A fascinating story of the changeable way in which our fates entwine. A man receives a letter from a solicitor, where he learns he has inherited a house and some money. The legacy derives from the will of one Henry Ruzicka, an unknown German man who had settled in Finland. When the narrator travels to see the house, he discovers among the effects a huge butterfly collection, a pile of personal diaries, and correspondence from a woman in Germany.
At the grocer’s, a doctor happens to run into Magda Roux, a Frenchwoman who has come to Finland to look for a missing man. She has a lead: the French edition of a book by a late Finnish author. The doctor remembers reading the book and decides to help her. But Magda disappears from her hotel without warning. The doctor is troubled: what does he know about the woman, or the man she was looking for, or the author of that particular book? He wants to find out more.
This brilliant literary novel delves into the mysteries of artistic creation and asks whether happiness always has a downside, always a negative to a positive.
PAGES:
126
The novel was shortlisted for the Runeberg Prize.
The novel was shortlisted for the Finlandia Prize.
The novel was shortlisted for the Finlandia Prize.
In his books, silences can speak and the atmosphere is palpably precise and intimate. At the same time, there is a great sense of storytelling.
– SAVON SANOMAT 25
An impressive show of skill. A coming-of-age story, a meditation on belief and doubt, an account of growing from youthful ecstasy into an adult world… Will still be remembered at the year’s end when juries – UUSI SUOMI NEWSPAPER compile their reviews of the literary year.
Mountains Be Shaken (Vaikka vuoret järkkyisivät) PAGES: 288 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2017 Elsa loves words but her mind aspires to be drawn somewhere higher. During her high school years, Elsa attends a revivalist meeting and finds a new home among people who speak in strange, beautiful tongues. Elsa’s family fears for her but Elsa craves a sense of belonging and personal, powerful experiences. The rapture of speaking in tongues, when it is finally granted her, offers the highest emotional rush imaginable, the ultimate carnal experience. Eight years later, Elsa is living in Bogotá, Colombia. At the local church, she meets Manuel, a wounded soul who has spent years in the jungle, held captive by FARC guerillas. Elsa starts to question fundamental aspects of her life: What is belief, and what is love? What is this unignorable desire she feels when Manuel draws on her skin? Nothing she has believed in feels simple any more.
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photo: Kari Hautala
Fiction | Terhi Törmälehto
TERHI TÖRMÄLEHTO (b. 1977) is the debut author to the striking, confident, and perceptive novel Mountains Be Shaken. The critically acclaimed work stirred instant interest and praise upon publication. Törmälehto’s lyrical, crystalline language pictures two very different scenes – the vast emptiness of northern Finland, and the dangerous, hustling metropolis of Bogotá. Terhi Törmälehto researched the religious phenomenon of speaking in tongues for her master’s degree. This research, along with her autobiographical experiences, inspired her to write fiction.
photo: Pekka Holmström
Kai Erik | Literary Mystery
KAI ERIK (Kaj Korkea-aho, b. 1983) is one of the most talented and distinguished Finland-Swedish writers of his generation. In his novels, Kai Erik deals with the themes of growing up and coming-of-age, as well as the role friends and friendship play during those crucial years. Despite subtle elements of the supernatural, the world in his novels always rings true: the characters are relatable, the environments recognisable. Underneath the familiar surface is a vague, creeping feeling that something is horribly and permanently ‘off’. This is gripping fiction with a strong and distinctive voice and allusions to literary heritage. Kai Erik is also a popular comedian and a screenwriter.
The Evil Book (Onda boken) PAGES: 330 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2015 In the middle of a standard lecture, university teacher Mickel Backman gets a real chill: he is confronted by one of his students about a book that should never be spoken of out loud. A book that is also tangled with his own darkest secrets and an illicit romance. How did this student come across of Leander Granlund, a deeply disturbed young poet from the 1920s who wrote only one collection of poetry which was never published? Soon, the whole university campus is haunted by evil forces.
The Grass Is Darker on the Other Side (Gräset är mörkare på andra sidan) PAGES: 426 | FIRST PUBLISHED IN: 2012 Sofie has driven off the road and died in the violent crash. When her fiancé Benjamin sees the photo taken by a speed surveillance camera, he is astonished: it seems Sofie was not alone in the car. Was it an accident after all? The haunting images of Sofie’s secret life awaken memories in Benjamin’s mind, eating up the grieving young man. Passion and secrets intertwine in a tangled web in this literary thriller.
An intriguing book [...] It reads like a suspense novel, but also evokes questions about the destructive forces of thoughts and the fine line between truth and lie. – NOORDTHE NETHERLANDSS DAGBLAD, THE NETHERLANDS, on The Evil Book.
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