Fiction

Featured titles this season

Logbook of Love
Literary Fiction

Hyena Days

Saara Turunen

Logbook of Love
Literary Fiction

Pine Bark

Tommi Kinnunen

Literary Fiction

A Disobedient Girl

Sara Al Husaini

Crime & Thrillers

Milo

Max Seeck

Crime & Thrillers

River Delta #5: The Liberator

Arttu Tuominen

New in Literary Fiction

HYEENAN PÄIVÄT
Tammi, March 2024, 281 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

Hyena Days

Saara Turunen

Is it possible to have a child and retain one’s own identity?

✓  The fourth novel by the award-winning author, playwright and director!

✓  For readers of Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti

✓  Saara Turunen’s works have been translated into 16 languages!

I had refused to believe that a life without a child would be empty; I had reassured myself that wasn’t the case, but now I’m forced to admit that maybe it is. There is a hollow in my life, it’s missing something.

The protagonist, an artist, has dreamed about having a child for years. She and her husband try to get pregnant, but they face obstacles such as COVID-19 pandemic and the related lockdown, living in different countries, and unsuccessful IVF treatments. When their last effort bears fruit and the protagonist becomes pregnant, different contradictory thoughts and emotions such as fear, shame and horror come to her mind. Eventually, the child is born, and the protagonist finds herself in a new reality. Everything that had been important before now seems the opposite. Also, taking care of a child is not without its problems, leading the protagonist to feel inferior. Reason on one hand and animality on the other cause conflict in her life.

Hyena Days is a precise and straightforward story about childlessness and the contradictory nature of having a child. It depicts the hopes for a child and the unpredictability of procreation, the shame related to one’s body, and the demands placed on the female body. The novel delves into the incompatible ideas between artistry and motherhood but, above all, it depicts the physical dimension of human life.

Turunen handles the subjects of her novel both in a wistful and a light manner. The short and bright sentences paint precise observations of the contradictoriness of life, of dreams and them becoming fulfilled in a different way that has been imagined. The narration flows effortlessly and takes the reader to a fascinating world full of both personal and universal questions.

I love the way Turunen writes about seemingly mundane details, but they actually represent structures or pain points of the society. Her language is straightforward, and the humor is seen in the contrasts of what is said and what happens.
Turun Sanomat newspaper on Turunen’s previous novel Irrational Things

NEW!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)

KAARNA
WSOY, April 2024, 205 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

Pine Bark

Tommi Kinnunen

A densely atmospheric and arrestingly written novel about women’s fates in times of war, the difficulty of giving up, and how the proximity of death can change a person

✓  The sixth novel by one of Finland’s most award-winning, bestselling and internationally acclaimed authors!

✓  Tommi Kinnunen has won the Best Book of 2014 Prize by the Grand Finnish Journalism Prize, the Readers’ Favorite of the Finlandia Prize of 2016 and 2020, the Minna Canth Prize of 2020, and the Giuseppe Acerbi Prize of 2023!

✓  Tommi Kinnunen’s works have been nominated three times for the Finlandia Prize and nominated for the Europese Literatuurprijs!

✓  Novels by Tommi Kinnunen have been sold to 22 territories!

✓  Tommi Kinnunen has been praised for giving a voice to people whose stories have been kept untold

A person cannot return to being who they once were without knowing who they have been.

In 2001, three siblings – Martti and twin sisters Eeva and Marja – meet in a small village in Northern Finland. Their mother Laina, an old woman who has been through the Second World War, is dying and the children have gathered to arrange the funeral. Even though the siblings have always been on good terms, Martti has always felt aloof, the odd man out. All of them reminisce about their childhood, but Martti remembers things slightly differently than the sisters.

As the novel progresses, the readers are transported through the decades and through Laina’s story, culminating in the Soviet partisan attack during the summer of 1944 that irrevocably changed Laina’s life. She has refused to recall the events and, at the same time, has denied her children the opportunity of remembering and recovering. “One can only talk about men’s war, as the women’s war is soundless and forbidden.

As his mother’s death grows nearer, Martti reaches out to connect with his siblings and attempts to fill in the gaps in the story, but is it already too late?

Tommi Kinnunen uses the phrase in many ways, subtly. At the same time, he writes concretely, descriptively, subtly and in clear sentences. Kinnunen’s language makes for enjoyable reading.
Karjalainen newspaper on Kinnunen’s previous novel Dark Moons

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Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

NELJÄNTIENRISTEYS
WSOY, 2014, 335 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

Where Four Roads Meet

Tommi Kinnunen

A delicately perceptive novel about people who build their dreams to forbidden heights

✓  Winner of the Best Book of 2014 Prize by the Grand Finnish Journalism Prize, the Young Aleksis Award 2015, the Thank You for the Book Medal of 2015, and the Giuseppe Acerbi Prize of 2023!

✓  Nominated for the Finlandia Prize and the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize! Shortlisted for the Europese Literatuurprijs of 2016!

✓  Rights sold to 22 territories!

A young midwife named Maria arouses suspicion among the villagers. Diligently taking care of difficult childbirths, she finally gains the respect she craves for, but fails to notice that she has become a prisoner of her own longing.

Maria’s daughter Lahja, born out of wedlock, wants to incorporate into her own life all that her mother has rejected as ballast. A refugee returning to the north scorched by war, she yearns for contact in her marriage, while her husband, war hero Onni, wanders the cities, seeking fleeting, forbidden moments of happiness.

Decades later, Kaarina is decorating her mother-in-law Lahja’s house, now devoid of dreams, and wants to tear down what others have built to remain silent.

Where Four Roads Meet is a touching and strong story of tenacious women. The novel is both about being different and of the change of the Finnish society. The altering voices of the narrators of the story make the structure of the novel particularly successful and keep the reader captivated. The writing is beautiful, the description of the protagonists is skillful, and their individual fates are fascinating, the novel is a well-balanced and a refined whole. Where Four Roads Meet is a brilliant and timeless debut novel.
– Thank You for the Book Prize jury

 MORE INFO

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Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
AZERBAIJAN: Agac LLC
CHINA (simplified): Chinese International Radio Press
CROATIA: Hena Com
CZECHIA: Argo
DENMARK: Rosinante
ESTONIA: Varrak
FRANCE: Albin Michel
GERMANY: DVA / Random House
HUNGARY: L’Harmattan
ICELAND: Bjartur
ITALY: Edizioni ETS
JAPAN: Shincho-sha
LATVIA: Zvaigzne
LITHUANIA: Alma Littera
NETHERLANDS: Prometheus
NORWAY: Pax
POLAND: W.A.B.
SLOVENIA: Cankarjeva Založba
SWEDEN: Norstedts
TURKEY: Bencekitap

HUR MAN MÖTER EN MAMMA
Förlaget, April 2024, 240 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Swedish edition

How We Met Your Mother

Kaj Korkea-aho

An autobiographical story about a gay couple’s journey to co-parenting

✓  The fifth novel from the award-winning author, playwright and columnist

✓  Kaj Korkea-aho’s works have been translated into 7 languages and nominated for the Runeberg Prize and the Nordic Council Literature Prize!

After eight years together, Kaj and Niko, living in Helsinki, decide to try to become parents. They start dating women, but the search for a co-parent seems impossible at first. What has to be right so that one could dare trust a complete stranger? Whose sperm cells should be used? How do you plan the future of a family that is outside the norms, in a society that is still coded heterosexually?

Kaj Korkea-aho’s autobiographical text about how three parents had a child is irresistibly touching, painful, and humorous. It bears traces of all forms of expression mastered by Korkea-aho – novel, podcast, blog, and drama – and can also be used as a kind of handbook for others in the same life situation. The book grabs the reader like a baby with its little hand and doesn’t let go until the book has been finished and the wonder of life has become a fact.

NEW!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Förlaget (orig. Finland-Swedish)
FINLAND: Otava (Finnish)

HUONO TYTTÖ
Like, June 2023, 295 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

A Disobedient Girl

Sara Al Husaini

An honest and authentic debut novel by the winner of the Refugee Woman of the Year Award, a novel that shakes the reader to their core

✓  Winner of the BookBeat Newcomer of the Year Award!

✓  Nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize of 2023 and the Savonia Prize of 2023!

✓  Close to 30,000 copies sold in Finland!

✓  A story of a fearless woman who wants to survive, change the world, and advance human rights of girls

A mother is escorting her daughter, trembling with fear, to the wedding suite door. This is what she’s been raised for ever since she was little, kept in wrapping paper like a precious sweet. This is the reason why she was brought back from Finland to Iraq.

You shouldn’t have abandoned the headscarf”, her siblings say. “He is your husband now”, her mother says.

A Disobedient Girl is an astonishingly honest and authentic story about the history of subjugating and silencing women, about abandoning one’s faith, honor violence, forced marriage, Islamic morality, the price of freedom, and the desperate desire for the right to self-determination. Above all, it is about a fearless woman who wants to survive and change the world.

Based on her own experiences, Sara Al Husaini’s novel A Disobedient Girl should be on the reading list of as many people as possible. It is an eye-opening and hopefully heart-opening story – or rather a document of sorts – about how the right to, among others, one’s own body is not everyone’s privilege.
– Kaisa Koski in Hämeen Sanomat newspaper

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 MORE INFO

 DOWNLOAD ENGLISH MATERIALS

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

Logbook of Love
36 UURNAA
Väärässä olemisen historia
Siltala, August 2023, 267 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

36 Urns
A History of Being Wrong

Sirpa Kähkönen

A masterpiece, which is worth living for

A celebrated author’s masterful and poetic confession of love to her mother

✓  #1 Bestseller in Finland in printed books with more than 55,000 copies sold!

✓  Winner of the Finlandia Prize of 2023! Nominated for the Runeberg Prize of 2024 and the Savonia Prize of 2023!

✓  For readers of Elizabeth Strout, Tove Ditlevsen, Moa Martinson, and Natalia Ginzburg! Rights sold to 6 territories and counting!

✓  Sirpa Kähkönen has been nominated for the Nordic Council Literary Prize and five times for Finlandia Prize, is the two-time winner of the Savonia Prize and has received the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s grand prize!

Author Sirpa Kähkönen’s mother Riitta (b. 1941) died in March 2022 after a long illness. In life, she struggled to accept love. “I do not grieve your death, I grieve your life,” Sirpa Kähkönen writes, knowing fully well that her mother wouldn’t like the phrase. Her mother rejected love, despite longing for it the most. Riitta was athletic, beautiful, and gifted. A traffic accident at the age of 16 changed the course of her life for ever.

Drawing on her mother’s diaries, Kähkönen depicts the life of a 1950s girl and the dramatic change that followed the accident. The novel talks about community dance halls, a broken mind, flowing hems, a 1960s mother, anxiety, anger and hate, addiction, and moments of psychosis. It talks about how wars and other crises become corporeal, how violence is inherited, and how the culture of discouragement and submission is passed down through the generations in sayings and attitudes, with the author clearly seeing herself as part of the tradition of anger and violence.

The novel is permeated by a fiery love, as if an ancient Finnish spell that, with the power of words, is capable of bringing loved ones back from the dead.

The work helped me to empathize with the life of another person. It touched me, causing an emotional avalanche. The impact of the book is comparable to a well-targeted blow to the chest. [—] The book is a skillful literature work, perceptive and insightful. Confession-like. The prose is clear and precise. [—] The personal experience of the author grows into a universal reach, and she finds something globally applicable about humans, hate, anger, lies, hope, dreams and their crumbling, death. The world is not only what one can see. This brings forth a masterpiece, which is worth living for.
– Jorma Uotinen, Finlandia Literature Prize of 2023 grand juror

FINLANDIA PRIZE WINNER!

NO. #1 BESTSELLER IN FINLAND!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Siltala (orig.)
AZERBAIJAN: Qanun
ESTONIA: Koolibri
GERMANY: Blessing (PRH)
HUNGARY: Polar
SWEDEN: Lind & Co

Logbook of Love
ERÄÄN KISSAN TUTKIMUKSIA
Otava, September 2023, 380 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

The Investigations of a Certain Cat

Katja Kettu

Katja Kettu’s stunning novel spins through ages whilst surrendering to the wilderness of nature and the deep yearning for offspring.

✓  A fascinating combination of autofiction and elements of magical realism!

✓  A critical success, a novel in which the power of words brings justice to the world, by one of Finland’s most internationally acclaimed authors!

✓  Rights sold to 9 territories and counting! A bestseller in Finland with more than 11,000 copies sold!

✓  Katja Kettu’s works have been sold to 24 territories!

Can one find solace and meaning in life from the past once the future no longer exists?

An Author has a miscarriage and loses their ability to speak and write. From the Investigative Bureau of Heavens, a Detective is sent to the scene, but something goes awry. Soon, in the corner of the room, there appears Cat who starts examining a mysterious diary that once belonged to the Author’s Great Grandmother.

When a new life has been lost, the Author turns their gaze to the past and to the age-old words of creation in the old Finnish outskirts. The one who knows them, Great Grandmother, has the power of healers. The Great Grandmother’s diary sheds light on birth and death, love towards children, and the strength of heritage in one’s blood.

Combining autofiction and elements of magical realism, Katja Kettu’s latest novel also sheds light on the history of the Finnish frontiers.

Katja Kettu has written a wonderful novel in which the power of words brings justice to the world. It isn’t harmless or beautiful, but the novel approaches words as a form of magic. [–] And what about the cat and its investigations? “Let the Cat come, let it take over my novel. I’m the one who’s weak here. Cats know a lot and care about little.” The Cat takes over the novel and is turned into a novel, and now it sticks out, funny and teasing, and difficult in so many ways.
– Maaria Ylikangas, Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
Already the first scenes of Katja Kettu’s novel are luscious. [–] The novel has a feeling of rebirth. Kettu not only describes the return of the author’s own voice but also shows it in practice, in her own text. It carries with it a ferocious desire for creation. [–] What can one say of humans, the relationships between them, the world around them? With what language and narration? These are the things that matter most for a reader. Kettu describes in line with the motto of the book “who has the word, has the power” the phases of her family but also her own experiences of childlessness, relationships, writing and the desire for isolation it brings. The reading experience is powerful.
Parnasso literary magazine

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
CZECHIA: ARGO
DENMARK: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ESTONIA: Koolibri
GERMANY: Weissbooks
ITALY: Mondadori
NORWAY: Pax Forlag
ROMANIA: Humanitas Fiction
SWEDEN: Albert Bonniers

Logbook of Love
RAKKAUKSIEN LOKIKIRJA
WSOY, August 2023, 227 pp.

Reading material:
Finnish edition
Full English translation

The Logbook of Love

Elina Hirvonen

What’s love all about? In Elina Hirvonen´s new novel, The Logbook of Love, conversations about love form a sea of connections among people from wildly different backgrounds and places.

✓  A novel for fans of Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill and Deborah Levy

✓  Elina Hirvonen’s debut novel When I Forgot was nominated for the Finlandia Prize and the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize of 2005 – and made the front page of The New York Times Book Review

✓  In 2023, Elina Hirvonen received the WSOY Literary Foundation Award, recognizing the artistic independence and high standards of her writing

✓  Full English manuscript of The Logbook of Love now available!

What’s love all about?

When Elina Hirvonen’s literary debut When I Forgot (Tin House/Portobello Books) was published in English, it made the cover of the New York Times Book Review in 2009 – extremely rare for a first novel in translation. Fast forward to 2023, and the award-winning author and filmmaker’s newest novel Rakkauksien lokikirja (“The Logbook of Love”) has been published in Finnish to rave reviews.

The first in a trilogy, The Logbook of Love takes readers on a compelling journey into the restorative powers of love from Finland to Zambia, Iraq, Afghanistan and points further afield.

In Helsinki, a city silenced by the global pandemic, the narrator tries to ward off the darkness as she walks through the empty streets by gathering people’s stories of love. Searching for meaning, hope and joy, she meets with friends and strangers, moves between the past and present, shifts from country to country. Everywhere she goes, she talks with others about love: romantic love, the love for justice and human rights, marital love, parental love, the love that can bind friends from different cultures and backgrounds – and the love that, no matter how powerful it is, sometimes fails to bridge the gaps between people.

That fall I began to fear my growing sense of depression would take away my ability to find meaning and I would no longer be able to write. For if I lose written words, what will I be left with? As I search for something that feels important, the word ‘love’ comes to mind. Could I ward off my dark thoughts by writing about love in all of its forms? What are all the things that love could be in this world? As darkness falls, I search for light by opening the file I’ve saved as ‘The Logbook of Love.’”

This struggle between love’s sadness and ecstasy, between love’s brightness and shadows, is felt in every chapter of the book. Hirvonen writes about people beautifully and touchingly, greatly appreciating each and every one. The narrative is documentary-like, but it is beautified by a sense of relevance, warmth and presence. Despite the grim, heavy world it depicts, The Logbook of Love is joyful and light.
– Outi Hytönen in Suomen Kuvalehti magazine
An exquisite meditation on human fragility, connection, and our yearning to find love, even in the midst of a global pandemic, even in a world on fire. Hirvonen weaves together impossibly disparate, intimate stories of her friends strewn across the globe [—]. These stories are told with such compassion and love that despite the bitter struggles, the reader is left with a sense of hope. In a time of global division, this book is an essential reminder of all that unites us.
– Anu Partanen, author of The Nordic Theory of Everything, HarperCollins

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

New in Crime & Thrillers

MERKITTY
Tammi, September 2024, 350 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish manuscript

Milo

Max Seeck

New York Times Bestselling and Spiegel Bestselling Author

Milo, a criminal profiler and art gallery owner struggling with sexual frustration needs to understand the game of chess better in order to catch a killer.

✓ Solar Films will adapt Milo to an international TV series for global distribution, with development starting in 2024 and a planned release in 2025!

✓ Rights to Milo have been sold pre-publication to Bastei Lübbe in Germany, Aschehoug in Norway, and Mera Éditions in France!

✓ Max Seeck won the prestigious Glass Key Award 2023 for The Last Grudge!

✓ Max Seeck’s books have sold over 400,000 copies in Finland!

Milo, a 38-year-old art enthusiast, gallery owner and criminal profiler struggles with sexual frustration that are both the cause and consequence for his marital problems with his wife Ronja. A body of a young woman is found painted in all-white representing a piece of chess. The chief inspector receives an anonymous letter with a short message: Bxc6. This indicates a chess move and along the location where the body was found the investigators feel that more chess moves might be on the way.

Milo struggles to form a clear picture of the killer. He soon understands that in order to help the police force to catch the killer he needs to understand the game of chess better. As much as he hates it, he decides to face the ghost of the past: her mother’s former partner Stanislav who happens to be a European champion in chess…

MILO is a psychological suspense novel with surprising twists and interesting facts about the game of chess. It’s also a story of complex human relationships, sex and issues people are facing when they approach the middle-age. The novel also covers a lot of art and other cultural references, maintaining the erotic vibe that stems from Milo’s and Ronja’s sexual adventures.

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
FRANCE: Mera éditions
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe
NORWAY: Aschehoug
FILM & TV: Solar Films Inc. Oy
Vapahtaja
WSOY, August 2023, 366pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Series presentation
Finnish edition

River Delta #5: The Liberator

Arttu Tuominen

Henning Mankell meets Stephen King! Arttu Tuominen’s unique human touch and excellence in depicting characters combined with shocking horror elements brings originality to Nordic Noir.

✓  International success – River Delta series has sold to 7 territories! Each novel can be read as a standalone.

✓ Arttu Tuominen is a Palle Rosenkrantz Prize-winning and a Spiegel Bestselling author! He was shortlisted for the Glass Key Awards 2021, a nominee Book Beat Finland’s Best Finnish Crime Author 2021-2023 and won the ‘Clue of the Year’ Crime Novel of the Year Award 2020.

The charred body of a man is discovered on a sports field in Pori. The victim had been doused with petrol and set on fire. Suspicions are directed at a group of young adults known to have harassed rough sleepers in the past. When a second arson attack is caught on CCTV, the Pori police are forced to take the attacks seriously as rumours on the street talk of a ‘liberator’ offering the wretched eternal life and freedom from pain.

The investigation takes the police deep into the world of the marginalised: nocturnal streets, drug dens, forest camps, bridge underpasses, and night shelters. Detective Susanna Manner, who leads the investigation, has a secret: her son is a rough sleeper involved in a serious crime. Manner is faced with the impossible dilemma: to put her child or her job first?

Internationally bestselling author Arttu Tuominen delivers a new crime novel with a strong social conscience, taking readers into the Pori night in all its colourful lights and inhabitants, tattooing it on to the reader’s skin.

THE LIBERATOR is the fifth book in the acclaimed ‘River Delta’ series, which has seen commercial success and garnered praise from readers and critics alike, both at home and abroad. Set in the city of Pori by the Gulf of Bothnia, a Finnish police unit has to solve crimes that force them to consider their own acts and values. In turn, each of the officers of the unit is centered in the narration, having to face their own ghosts from the past. Each novel can be read as a standalone.

Also available:

River Delta #1: The Oath
A touching and engaging crime novel about secrets and guilt. Commissioner Jari Paloviita works on a murder case where the prime suspect is an old friend he feels indebted to.

River Delta #2: Jeopardy
The grenade attack on the restaurant claims casualties – and at the same time threatens to expose Chief Commissioner Herik Oksman’s life-long secret.

River Delta #3: Silenced
Pori police detectives Jari Paloviita, Linda Toivonen and Henrik Oksman are faced with an exceptionally cruel series of crimes against elderly citizens. Soon they are dealing with international crime, and one of the taboos of the Finnish war story is connected to the investigation.

River Delta #4: Shamed
An investigation into a girl’s murder takes the police into the world of predators hiding on the Internet and becomes personal for Senior constable Linda Toivonen, whose daughter knew the young victim.

They are fierce, these Finns, and this year, one of their best crime writers, Arttu Tuominen is awarded the Rosenkrantz Prize for Sendebuddet (Jeopardy) […] Tuominen’s writing is like moonshine when writing about brutally bitter souls.
– Palle Rosenkrantz Prize jury statement

With The Liberator, Tuominen has written his best detective novel so far. This is a great achievement, as the level has been excellent since the beginning of the Delta series
– Taika Dahlbom in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

NEW!

 

Rights sold to River Delta Series:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
DENMARK: Modtryk (6 books)
FRANCE: La Martinière (4 books)
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe (5 books)
ITALY: Piemme (2 books)
NETHERLANDS: De Fontein (3 books)
SLOVENIA: Litera (3 books)
SWEDEN: Lind & Co (3 books)

FILM & TV: Lucy Loves Drama

Tuomas Niskakangas: Kotka
Otava, April 2024, 363pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

Leo Koski #3: The Eagle

Tuomas Oskari aka Tuomas Niskakangas

A desperate father, an unhinged president, and a conspiracy to change the world.

✓ For fans of Dan Brown and David Baldacci! The Eagle is the third, fully independent book!

✓  A fast-paced international thriller, blended with a murder mystery in the White House.

✓  Inspired by the author’s years in Washington, D.C. as the US correspondent for the largest newspaper in Finland.

✓  Book #1 was chosen as BookBeat Newcomer of the Year 2021!

Former prime minister of Finland Leo Koski is a 39-year-old single dad, done with politics and traumatized by the murder of his true love. As the populist US president Chester Tyler is withdrawing the United States from NATO, Koski is forced to return to the White House for one more meeting.

Things unravel when the president is poisoned. Koski is faced with a horrible choice between his daughter’s life and the security of Europe. With the New York Times reporter Ashley Pegula by his side, Koski has only a few hours to find out who poisoned the president. And why?

Perfect for anyone looking for a smart and fast-paced thriller, The Eagle is the third, fully independent book in the Leo Koski series. The previous titles Their Turn to Burn and The Act of Gladius have been acquired by Bastei Lübbe in Germany and Their Turn to Burn was chosen as the BookBeat Newcomer of the Year for 2021!

Also available:

Leo Koski #1: Their Turn to Burn
A fast-paced political thriller taking place over the course of 25 hours. An economic crisis is dividing Finland and young Prime Minister Leo Koski is caught in a dangerous power play where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Leo Koski #2: The Act of Gladius
The refugee crisis following the economic collapse is pushing tensions in Europe to the extreme. Former Finnish Prime Minister Leo Koski thinks he is an insignificant pensioner at the age of 36, but soon finds himself in the center of a dangerous undercover mission to stop a far-rights extremist group – but who is pulling the strings?

Their Turn to Burn kept the audience in its grip right from the publication. [–] The thriller, set in the Finland of the near future, is a tour de force in sharp and insightful narration whihc makes the reader look forward to the next part.
– BookBeat Award

NEW!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe (2 books)

 

YKSIN
Otava, May 2024, approx. 300 pp.

Reading material:
English synopsis
English & German sample book 1
Series presentation
Finnish ms

The Kristinestad Murders #2: Alone

Kaisu Tuokko

The praised and bestselling crime series continues! The series is planned to have six installments.

✓ Kaisu Tuokko’s debut novel The Kristinestad Murders #1: REVENGE has sold more than 12,000 copies in Finland!

✓  REVENGE was nominated for the BookBeat Newcomer of the Year award of 2023 and is nominated for the Storytel Award of 2023!

An elderly woman is found dead in Kristinestad, malnourished, dirty, and abused. She’s wearing the socks of the local nursing home, but the people there don’t recognise her. No one knows who she is.

Mats, the local police officer, starts investigating the case with his team, but establishing the identity of the murder victim proves tricky. Mats also has issues in his personal life, and same goes for the journalist Eevi, who struggles to get pregnant. While Eevi uncovers harsh truths about the treatment of the elderly in Kristinestad, Mats and his team find another body – and it seems Mats’ brother is also involved in the crime.

The Kristinestad Murders is a new, atmospheric crime series set in a coastal town in Finland, with intriguing main characters and interpersonal relationships. The author Kaisu Tuokko combines the thrilling crime plots with societal issues, and the result hooks the reader. The first installment in the series, REVENGE, sold over 12,000 copies within the first months, and the series is planned to have six installments.

Also available:

The Kristinestad Murders #1: REVENGE
The body of a young man is discovered in the sea, and the criminal investigator Mats Bergholm is responsible for the case. At the same time, journalist Eevi Manner is sent to dig out a scoop of the event for the local newspaper. Both are surprised to find each other on the grim beach: the two have a past together – a past which they now need to set aside to solve the case.

Will Kaisu Tuokko’s Kristinestad be Finland’s equivalent to Camilla Läckberg’s Fjällbacka or Mari Jungstedt’s Visby? [—] The key thing is that Tuokko succeeds in creating excitement and suspense by bringing up current social phenomena against an idyllic setting.
– Taika Dahlbom in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

NEW!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

SAARI, JOKA REPESI
Takamailla #1
Bazar, February 2024, 400 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Series presentation
Finnish edition

The Outback Series #1: The Island Torn Apart

Joona Keskitalo

The story of twelve steps that plunge the idyllic archipelago in the southwest of Finland into utter chaos.

✓  New crime series by an author hailed as Finnish Jens Lapidus!

✓  An alternative to police procedurals – crimes as seen from the perspective of local people caught up in them

✓  The Island Torn Apart kicks off The Outback crime series set in remote Finnish villages. Each part is a unique story with its own set of characters, creating a series of thriller-like visits to the ends of long dirt roads, unleashing the Finnish mental landscape at its most naked and exotic!

Korppoo: a place where many have died.

It’s a beautiful place – serene, a little piece of paradise – by the name of Korppoo. A place where people offer apple pie to passers-by and lend their tractor to their neighbors. Where everyone greets each other, joys are shared and grudges are borne forever. Then, Jennifer from Helsinki buys a guest marina on the island and brings death with her.

Sigge Boman, an embittered ferryman who lost the family boat to gambling, decides to get his own back. However, his liquor-soaked revenge expedition takes an unexpected turn when a floating corpse gets caught up on the bow of Sigge’s miserable outboard motorboat. He peers to look, stumbles, and sinks into the icy depths, clinging on tightly to the stiff body. He is rescued at the last minute and his drunken bungling is misinterpreted as a heroic rescue attempt. For the first time in his life, Sigge is appreciated – and that’s easy to get hooked on.

Meanwhile, a new inn owner arrives on the island, the good-hearted Jennifer who brings death with her. Empty boats drift on the sea and a feeling of unease spreads among the islanders. Are these strange events just chance, or is everything somehow linked to Jennifer’s high-flying plans? Or is it the three Russians snapping up properties in the area at an ever-faster pace?

The Island Torn Apart promises the reader at least one thing – when the earth’s crust tears, things will be revealed that no one would have dared to dig out.

Keskitalo does completely his own thing. He is the most original of [Finland’s] thriller authors and now also shows that he is the most adaptable. [–] The narration is as dynamic and with switching points-of-view as in the previous titles. And the slow but inevitable tightening of the screw in terms of suspense keeps one hooked till the very end.
– Kai Hirvasnoro in Kansan uutiset newspaper

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Bazar (orig.)

HENGISSÄ
WSOY, December 2023, 271 pp.

Reading material:
English synopsis
English sample in May 2024
Finnish edition

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen

Nothing is as it seems.

✓  Sequel to the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed Follow the Butterfly!

✓  Rights to Follow the Butterfly have been sold to 15 territories, including UK & US! Film & TV rights sold to Legendary-Tobis!

Four years have passed since the events of Follow the Butterfly. Ira and Arto have teamed up, and both work as crime journalists for the Helsinki Today. Everything’s going nicely, until Ira starts suspecting there’s a serial killer on the loose in Helsinki.

The murders are investigated by Senior Crime Inspector Kerttu Leppänen, who leads the murder unit and eagerly waits for retirement. Unsolved cases haunt Kerttu, who is unable to forgive herself.

The past catches up with all of them – if they were ever free from its clutches in the first place…

Martta Kaukonen wrote a captivatingly intellectual book that is suitable for even the most hardened crime reader. [–] Martta Kaukonen’s second novel Meet Me in the Darkness is a celebration of surprises. [–] Kaukonen’s most skillful magic trick is in the joy of surprise, which she erupts as she betrays the expectations she has created for the reader.
–Taika Dahlbom in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal (2-book-deal)
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)

TERAPIASSA
WSOY, March 2021, 471 pp.

Reading material:
English edition
German edition
Finnish edition

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

There’s a killer on the couch. An addictive psychological thriller in the spirit of Gillian Flynn!

✓  Nominated for the Glass Key Award 2024!

✓  An international bestseller by author, film critic and ex-journalist Martta Kaukonen, sold in 16 territories!

✓  A Spiegel Bestseller in Germany with more than 23,500 copies sold!

✓  US & UK release in March 2024 by Pushkin Press! English edition available!

✓  A critical success and bestseller in Finland with close to 10,000 copies sold! A Savonia Prize nominee!

✓  Film & TV Rights acquired by Legendary Tobis!

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. Everyone knows who she is from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never ceases to haunt her. When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

German series production company Legendary Tobis TV, a Joint Venture between leading German producer-distributor Tobis and the Los Angeles based Legendary Entertainment, has acquired the rights to Follow The Butterfly and will develop it into a German language series.

We are very excited to start working on “THERAPIERT” (Follow the Butterfly) by Martta Kaukonen, which is one of the most thrilling debuts of this year. With its strong female characters and surprising twists, it is perfect for a series adaption
– Isabel Hund CEO of Legendary Tobis
Breathlessly plotted, deviously constructed, and brought to vivid, twisted life by an antiheroine for the ages… An utterly beguiling debut. This isn’t just a thriller you sink your teeth into—it’s a thriller that sinks its teeth right back into you.
– Elizabeth Little, author of Pretty as a Picture, US

BESTSELLING!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECH REPUBLIC: Kniha Zlin/Albatros
DENMARK: Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal (2-book-deal)
ITALY: Longanesi
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi Publishing
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible

KUINKA KUOLEMA KOHDATAAN
Otava, April 2024, 400 pp.

Reading material:
English synopsis
English sample in May 2024
Series presentation
Finnish editions

Saana Havas #4: How to Face Death

Elina Backman

The lovely summer scenery is twisted by a desire for revenge.

✓  Elina Backman is one of Finland’s bestselling fiction authors!

✓  International TV series in development!

✓  Elina Backman’s books have sold over 100,000 copies in Finland!

Saana Havas is spending midsummer with her Aunt Inkeri in Kaunissaari, Kotka, renovating her aunt’s friend’s villa and getting to know the mysterious neighborhood. When the midsummer celebrations end fatally, the dark history of the island begins to unravel.

The summer plans of Saana’s boyfriend, police officer Jan Leino, are changed by the murder of a Finnish art collector in Nice. The message left by the murderer puts Jan on his toes. Will there be more victims? And how is everything related to a long-forgotten death?

Elina Backman’s Saana Havas series has charmed readers in Finland and abroad, selling to 17 territories. Her debut, ALL THE KING’S MEN, immediately prompted the press to call her a new star in the crime scene. The previous three books in the series have all been bestsellers.

Also available:

Book #1: All the King’s Men
Saana Havas has been fired from her job as a click-bait journalist, so she decides to spend a summer with her aunt in a small-town Hartola. It sounds like a perfect opportunity to take it easy and recover – until she comes across a case of a teenage girl who died 30 years earlier and starts investigating. Meanwhile in Helsinki, crime investigator Jan Leino and his team look into a murder case where a fire-marked body is found at Suomenlinna Sea Fortress. Eventually, Saana and Jan’s paths cross – for more than one reason.

Book #2: Still Waters Run Deep
Three young men are making a documentary film about a mystical hermit, living in the Isle of Sheep in Helsinki. First one of them disappears, then another one. When one of them is found dead in the nearby nature reserve, police commissioner Jan Leino and his team become involved. Saana Havas, recovering from burnout, hears that her colleague’s younger brother has gone missing and decides to set up a true crime podcast to help with the search.

Book #3: Before the Polar Night Falls
A Reindeer Noir crime novel. Saana Havas investigates an unsolved death of a young woman in Northern Lapland in 1998, where the murderer has never been caught. The police have given up on the case, and no witnesses were ever found in an area of Lapland that covers hundreds of kilometers.

A new series with a charming duo in the center [—] The Scandinavians just know how thrillers work.
Ratgeber Frau und Familie, Germany

NEW!

 

Rights sold to Saana Havas Series:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
ALBANIA: Dritan (1 book)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Grada (1 book)
DENMARK: Gyldendal (3 books)
ESTONIA: Varrak (2 books)GERMANY: Piper Verlag (3 books)
FRANCE: HarperCollins France (1 book)
HUNGARY: Maxim (2 books)
ITALY: Newton Compton (2 books)
LITHUANIA: BALTO (1 book)
NETHERLANDS: De Bezige Bij/Cargo (2 books)
NORWAY: Cappelen Damm (2 books)
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2 books)
ROMANIA: Lebada Neagra (1 book)
RUSSIA: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber (2 books)
SLOVAKIA: Arkus (3 books)
SWEDEN: Bokfabriken (3 books)

FILM & TV RIGHTS: Aurora Studios

POLTTOPISTE
Tuulia Raja #3
Tammi, March 2024, 288 pp.

Reading material:
English synopsis (books 1-3)
English sample (book 1)
Finnish edition

Tuulia Raja, Private Eye #3: The Focal Point

Pauliina Susi

Kisses and crimes in a hot summer town where bodies pile up faster than ice cream orders

✓  New series by a praised and award-winning crime author combines a murder mystery with witty dialogue and relationship drama like no other!

✓  Over 12,000 copies in the series sold in Finland!

✓  For fans of Janet Evanovich and the TV show The Flight Attendant!

The summer’s city festival begins on a tragic note as a young man dies of an allergic reaction in front of the private eye Tuulia Raja. The local pizzeria owners are suspected, and the residents of the small town do not react positively. Soon the situation escalates: something burns on the boulevard, and eventually, a body is found on the festival stage. Tuulia Raja’s skills are once again needed! But can she figure out who wants to destroy the summer idyll and why?

The Tuulia Raja books have charmed readers and critics alike. The murder mysteries are gripping, with exuberant humor and a dash of romance. The events take place in southern Finland, in and around the small town of Järvenpää. Each book has its own criminal case. The arc of the series centers on Tuulia, a forty-year-old flight attendant, and her progress as a professional private detective under the tutelage of her eccentric boss Yrjö Rahkonen.

Also available:

Tuulia Raja, Private Eye #1: Private Property
Tuulia Raja is a resourceful flight attendant who keeps calm even in the worst of pickles. But when her employer is declared bankrupt, it is time to search for new horizons. A chance encounter leads her to meet with a private investigator, and in no time she is investigating the last moments of a now-dead business mogul.

Tuulia Raja, Private Eye #2: Electric Atmosphere
Starting her career as a private detective, Tuulia Raja is contacted by her childhood friend whose nude pictures have been leaked online.The situation becomes more electrified when one of Tuulia’s acquaintances, a gym entrepreneur, is found lifeless. Soon, Tuulia finds herself in the middle of a showdown within the local small-town underworld.

The premise of a flight attendant turned private investigator is pleasantly original. The funniest aspects of the novel are the conversations between Tuulia and her senior detective mentor which remind a little bit of the 1980s hit series Moonlighting.
Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

NEW!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)

PAKENE ENNEN AAMUA
Otava, December 2023, 282 pp.

Reading material:
English synopsis (books 1-3)
English sample (books 1 and 2)
Finnish edition

Ronja Vaara #3: Flee Before the Dawn

Eeva Louko

Bestselling crime series, locked-room mysteries, and harrowing thrills. To be read in one sitting.

✓  Eeva Louko’s books have sold over 40,000 copies and received glowing reviews!

✓  Rights sold in 5 territories and counting!

✓  A crime series for millennials: surprising twists and relationship drama!

Ronja, Milla and Ansku together with their partners decide on a weekend getaway on the island of the historical Bengtskär lighthouse to enjoy sauna and relax. Milla also wants to introduce her new partner, a celebrity businessman.

The group barely has time to raise a toast before the mini getaway turns into a big nightmare. An autumn storm wreaks havoc, and Milla is missing as the women are meant to go to the sauna. The storm makes searching for Milla hard and cuts off the connection to the mainland. As the night advances, it becomes painfully clear that Milla’s disappearance is only the beginning.

Eeva Louko’s Ronja Vaara series was an immediate hit in Finland upon its publication in 2022, with the debut MURDER ON THE ISLE OF BLISS selling over 25,000 copies and the sequel LAND OF SERPENTS being a bestseller with over 10,000 copies sold and critically acclaimed as well. The friendships between women in their 30s and 40s and the relatability of their everyday life combined with thrilling plotlines is a combination that is hard to put down.

Also available:

Ronja Vaara #1: Murder on the Isle of Bliss
After living abroad for many years, thirty-something Ronja returns to her childhood home in Lauttasaari, Helsinki after her father is found murdered by the seaside. Welcoming her back are a group of old friends and the young police officer assigned to the case who does not seem to be doing his work properly. Using the skills she’s learned from working as a journalist, Ronja starts investigating herself.

Ronja Vaara #2: Land of Serpents
When the body of a young woman is found on Käärmesaari (Serpent Island) near Helsinki, Ronja’s new boss at the local newspaper senses an opportunity to make the newspaper the prime source for any information on the case. Reluctantly, Ronja contacts the chief investigator Anton Koivu, who is surprisingly willing to leak confidential information to Ronja – if she does him a favor in return. Soon, another death shocks the people of Lauttasaari and a surprising guest from the past throws the investigation off balance.

The author masterfully conveys the sensation of fear, ominous expectations, and complex human psychology and the novel keeps the reader strongly in its leash because, as is customary with crime novels, the author shows you pieces of a puzzle but gives no hints which of these fit the picture.
–Jaan Martinson in Raamatublogi book blog on news portal Delfi, Estonia

NEW!

 

Rights sold to Ronja Vaara Series:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu (2 books)
GERMANY: Heyne (1 book)
ITALY: Newton Compton (1 book)
POLAND: Czwarta Strona (1 book)

LILI LOIMOLA RATKAISEE: TYTTÖKODIN TAPAUS
Otava, March 2024, 350 pp.

Reading material:
English synopses book 1-3
English sample (book 1)
Series presentation
Finnish edition

Lili Flame Investigates #3: The Case of the Girls’ Orphanage

Laura Andersson

The feel-good crime series with vivid scenery, strong characters and gripping cases!

✓  An atmospheric mystery series reminiscent of old-time detective novels but with a queer angle!

✓  For fans of Agatha Christie, Alan Bradley, and Richard Osman

The hot summer of 1947 gets a chilling twist as the body of a young boy is found near a girl’s orphanage, and Lili is asked to investigate. Soon she finds out that one of the residents of the home has also gone missing. The home and its residents are subjected to strict rules – has the girl run away, or is she also a victim of a crime? In the fear-filtered atmosphere it is tricky to distinguish between truth and the lies. To balance things out, Lili spends time among artists in Helsinki, who are ready to leave the war behind and embrace the future.

The Lili Flame Investigates series has been compared to Agatha Christie as well as to the Inspector Palmu series by Mika Waltari. Set in post-war Helsinki, the expressive narration and the charismatic characters have charmed readers – the two previous titles have been received with adoration!

Also available:

Lili Flame Investigates #1: Murder at the Mansion
Post-war Helsinki is full of people looking to build a new life, and Lili Flame, who spent the war years in the US as a housemaid, is among them. However, the housekeeping gets swept aside when Lili breaks away from the traditional womanly roles of her time and begins a career as a private eye solving crimes which are too sensitive for the police. Lili gets help from her husband, a gay man who’s becoming a companion like no other – even if the true nature of their marriage has to be kept a secret. The first case leads her to the party of a rich corporate family.

Lili Flame Investigates #2: The Mystery of the Circus Woman
Lili and her husband are excited to see an unusual performance visiting Helsinki: a troupe of female wrestlers from America! But after the show, chaos erupts: One of the star performers has been shot – and struck with a knife. Why two methods of killing? Could there be two murderers, too?The Helsinki police are not particularly interested in investigating the foreign woman’s murder, but Lili and Riku won’t give up.

The narration flows swiftly, and the location of post-war Helsinki feels fresh. Lili is a heroine well suited there: a woman of the new era with her own will and a quick wit.
– Salla Stotesbury, Kodin Kuvalehti magazine, Finland

NEW!

 

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

Backlist – Literary Fiction

ARVEJORD
Förlaget, August 2022, 371 pp.

Reading material:
English edition
French edition
Swedish edition

Inherited Land

Maria Turtschaninoff

Inherited Land is an episodic work of literary fiction depicting human relationships with nature across generations, following in the tradition of family sagas like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

The roots of people and forest are intertwined in the depths of the earth.

✓  Winner of the Svenska YLE Literature Prize 2022, the Thank You for the Book Award 2023 and the Young Aleksis Award 2023!

✓  A future classic – rights have been sold to 23 territories and counting!

✓  Fastest selling literary fiction title for Ahlback Agency!

✓  First adult novel by internationally bestselling and award-winning YA author Maria Turtschaninoff, whose The Red Abbey Chronicles have been sold to more than 30 territories!

Inherited Land tells multiple enchanting stories about short human lives on a small farmstead in the north of Finland with its golden cloudberries and the mythical forest creatures. The hub of the narrative is a marsh close to the farmstead, and nature is the constant while humans are like dragonflies: here one day, gone the next. Across four centuries, the people face wars, epidemics, and heartbreaks, but in the woods they find shelter and a place to be themselves.

Inherited Land is a novel about the climate crisis without ever mentioning it by name. Instead, the novel explores what people have thought about their environment, how they have used it and why. The novel is a reminder of where we have come from, and what a relationship between humans and nature could look like in the future.

Turtschaninoff credibly brings history to life; this is how it might have happened. But what touches most deeply are the contemporary depictions: the closer we get to everyday life and our own time, the more the characters touch me. [—] It is complete presence; the author has become one with the text. That is great storytelling.
– Yvonne Granqvist Schultz, Österbottens Tidning newspaper

Entering the first pages of this book gives the reader the impression of slipping into a bath of nature.
– Isabelle Vial, Le Pélerin, France

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Förlaget (orig. Finland-Swedish)
FINLAND: Tammi (Finnish)
AZERBAIJAN: Alatoran
BULGARIA: Izida
CHINA: Rentian Ulus
CROATIA: Hena Com
CZECH REPUBLIC: Argo
DENMARK: Alpha Forlag
ESTONIA: Rahva Raamat
FRANCE: Éditions Paulsen
GERMANY: Rowohlt
HUNGARY: L’Harmattan
ISRAEL: Hakibbutz Hameuchad – Sifriat Poalim
ITALY: Bompiani
NETHERLANDS: Atlas Contact
NORWAY: Bonnier Norsk Forlag
POLAND: Poznańskie
ROMANIA: Editura Univers
SWEDEN: Förlaget
TURKEY: Timas Yayinlari
UKRAINE: Old Lion Publishing House
UNITED KINGDOM & COMMONWEALTH: Pushkin Press
UNITED STATES & CANADA: Pushkin Press
WORLD ALBANIAN: Shkupi Publishing House

LUMO
Otava, August 2022, 383 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
German sample
Finnish edition
Full English translation in December 2024

The Enchantment

Riikka Pulkkinen

This shiningly beautiful novel is an autopsy of girlhood and power.

✓  World English rights sold to Scribe for publication in 2025!

✓  Riikka Pulkkinen is a shining star in Finnish literature, an award-winning and bestselling author with international publishers in 19 territories!

✓  A literary masterpiece with topical themes: What’s the difference between identity and projection and what image of ourselves do we allow others to see, in real life and online?

✓  Selected as one of the best books of 2022 by Suomen Kuvalehti magazine!

Philippa Laakso, aged seventeen, is found dead in her yard at home. Nothing suggests a crime, and everyone who knew her is certain she wasn’t suicidal. On the other hand, all who knew her seem to hold a differing view of her. The investigation sees them being interviewed, but behind every view and story is Philippa’s influence. She still has the people around her in a sharp grip: her friend, ex-boyfriend, teacher, neighbors.

Riikka Pulkkinen’s anticipated novel examines the power and comfort of make-believe and the thin line between love and play. Every character in the novel sees Philippa in his or her own way, as a mirror for fantasizing, anger, aspirations, comfort, and freedom, and uses their perceived image of Philippa to their own ends.

The skillful text carries different atmospheres and balances between them, holding the reader on a knife’s edge waiting what happens next. Pulkkinen’s text is rich with details that build a strong landscape both in the visual and physical sense. How can a text be this light and heavy at the same time? [–] Pulkkinen is an incredibly skillful, clever, deep author with a clear voice of her own, and she’s again managed to capture a great image on the pages with almost magical skills.
– Heidi Heinonen, Kaleva newspaper

The Enchantment is a deeply thought-out, psychological novel about the ways that we present ourselves, what we let others see and what we hide away. What seems at first like it could be a simple mystery about the unexpected death of a teenage girl becomes a fascinating dismantling of a well-worn trope, in which the ensemble cast reveal their own deepest fears and failings through their projections onto the central character of Philippa, who we never quite come to know in her own right.
– Molly Slight, Publisher, Scribe UK

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
LATVIA: Janis Roze
WORLD ENGLISH: Scribe UK

YSTÄVÄNI NATALIA
Teos, November 2019, 240 pp.

Reading material:
English edition
Finnish edition

My Friend Natalia

Laura Lindstedt

A bold and brave novel about a young woman’s sexuality, the power of narration, and identity.

✓  International bestseller! Laura Lindstedt’s books have been translated into 18 languages!

✓  Laura Lindstedt’s previous novel Oneiron won the Finlandia Prize of 2015 and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize of 2017!

Natalia starts to see a therapist to help solve the problems in her sex life. It is clear from the beginning that she is not going to play by the rules of the therapy. The weekly sessions combine art, philosophy, literature, childhood memories, and erotic experiences as a method of treatment, and slowly they make Natalia lose all her inhibitions. She starts to enjoy the therapy – maybe too much?

The novel takes a deconstructive approach to the self-help narratives of our time and drives the tools of autofiction into a dead end, asking what is concealed, when everything is revealed.

I was tremendously impressed by My Friend Natalia. [—] Lindstedt has a very Finnish take on sophistication (downbeat, deadpan), is disconcerting, dissonant, peerless in deferred resolution, a blithe dissolver of the regular association of ideas.
– Helen DeWitt, Author

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
ESTONIA: Rahva Raamat
GERMANY: DTV
HUNGARY: Scolar
ITALY: Elliot Edizioni
LITHUANIA: BALTO
NETHERLANDS & BELGIUM: De Bezige Bij
NORWAY: Oktober
ROMANIA: Humanitas
SWEDEN: Norstedts
UNITED STATES: W.W. Norton & Company

ONEIRON
Teos, 2015, 400 pp.

Reading material:
English manuscript
Finnish edition
Italian edition

Oneiron

Laura Lindstedt

Seven women, all from different countries, stuck in a post-mortem limbo from which there is no escape – except through words and stories

✓  Winner of the Finlandia Prize of 2015!

✓  Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize of 2017!

✓  Rights sold to 15 territories!

Seven women meet in a white, undefined space seconds after their deaths. Time, as we understand it, has ceased to exist, and all bodily sensations seem to have disappeared.

None of the women can remember what happened to her, or how she got there. Performance artist Shlomith from New York, chief accountant Polina from Moscow, heart transplant patient Rosa Imaculada from Brazil, upper-class Nina from Marseilles who is expecting twins, Wlbgis from the Netherlands, who suffers from throat cancer, Senegalese Maimuna, who dreams of a career as a model, and Austrian teenager, Ulrike. They don’t know each other. They don’t know why they are there – or where they are. In turn they try to remember, to piece together the fragments of their lives, their identities, their lost loves, and to pinpoint the moment they left their former lives behind.

Lindstedt plays with genres from essay to poetry, transitioning from humour to rage – while asking her reader to contemplate the question of death’s inevitability and what follows it. As also in Lindstedt’s acclaimed debut novel Scissors, Oneiron addresses the challenges of communication on several levels.

A spectacular novel about life after death… Laura Lindstedt embodies with breathtaking imagination the idea that we are all equal in the face of death…[weaving] her unlikely story with the finest of writers’ hands.
Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
BULGARIA: Faber
CZECH REPUBLIC: ARGO
DENMARK: Rosinante & Co
FRANCE: Gallimard
HUNGARY: Scolar
ITALY: Elliot Edizioni
LITHUANIA: Versus Aureus
NORWAY: Oktober
POLAND: Poznanskie
ROMANIA: Editura Paralela 45
SPAIN: Armaenia Editorial
SWEDEN: Norstedts
TURKEY: Alfa Kitap
UNITED STATES & UNITED KINGDOM: Oneworld Publications

Logbook of Love
ESIKOINEN
Otava, August 2023, 320 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

Firstborn

Maria Peura

A heartrending autobiographical novel about one’s own child being placed in an institution and about feeling out of place as a child

✓  The sixth novel by award-winning author and playwright

✓  Maria Peura is a unique voice in Finnish literature, a portrayer of foreignness, growth pains and the mental landscape of Nordic people

✓  Maria Peura’s works have been nominated for the Finlandia and Runeberg prizes and have won the Nuori Aleksis and Olvi Foundation prizes!

The author starts putting together the story of her firstborn child – a child whose ill-being and problematic behavior eventually led to him being placed in a child protection institution. Only now, when everything is okay, does the author dare to put her own distress and guilt into words. “What mistakes did I make? How was I trespassed against and why has my child ended up broken because of me being broken?

Maria Peura’s autobiographical novel is a relentlessly honest and lyrically beautiful depiction of the cycles of trauma, of the effects of violence, and the chance for light and survival.

Firstborn is a heartrending and elegantly built story. It talks about a mother who has experienced belittling as a child and domestic violence and who now has to relinquish her child into child protection institution. [—] A mother’s love is the core theme of the novel. It is depicted in many forms, in different stages of life and in different directions [—]. It is a personal and intimate novel. In its subject matter, it is a profound and skillful novel. [—] Peura impressively depicts the magnitude and the personal, tearing impact of the events [described in the book].
– Outi Hytönen, Suomen Kuvalehti magazine

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

ØRJA
Otava, January 2023, 395 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

Ørja

Riikka Sandberg

A fateful novel about friendship, passion and secrets buried in the sea from the end of the occupation of Norway till the 1970s.

✓  For fans of Karin Smirnoff and Kerstin Ekman!

✓  Rights sold to Norstedts in Sweden!

1952. A gigantesque mail carrier lives on the island of Ørja with her boat-building father. His last boat is left unfinished, and the daughter takes on the task. The boat is sold to an island-dweller who is the subject of many chilling rumors.

1976. Tine arrives in Ørja to put up a traveling cinema. But what is even more interesting than the projector, is the wire recorder she finds in the shed. It talks of a tragic past that the island community has kept silent about.

A rebel. A spouse. A savior. A friend. A lover. How many lives can one person live? What happens when they collide?

The novel is filled with fantastic nature descriptions. The author has written it with such detail, that the reader can sense the rippling of waves on the pier and the stormy swelling of the sea against the harsh rocks. [—] The colourful nature descriptions accompany the bleak human destinies which the reader follows with excitement until the end.
– Jari Olavi Hiltunen, Satakunnan kansa newspaper

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
SWEDEN: Norstedts

MUSTA PEILI
WSOY, September 2021, 287 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition
Swedish translation

The Black Mirror

Emma Puikkonen

Three women, three epochs and three destinies

✓  For fans of Maja Lunde!

✓  Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize of 2023 and the Runeberg Prize of 2022!

✓  The black mirror of humanity, a novel about oil by the Finlandia Prize-nominated author!

The Black Mirror is a magically beautiful novel about a world ran by oil. And about the humankind who must take a look at the looking glass.

When Ida Tarbell is a child, black gold is springing from the ground in her hometown of Rouseville in the 1860s. When Lotte Teer is a child in 1973, people gather around on a picnic on an Amsterdam highway. Astrid Fuglesang has always dreamed of oil rigs and lands on one in the year 2028.

For millions of years, black liquid has hibernated beneath the earth and the ocean. When it is awoken, the humankind can no longer live without it. Ida, Lotte and Astrid are driven women whose fates are swayed by oil. Each of them takes control of it, in a way.

Humans and oil are not separate entities. Fossil fuels are the invisible basis of the economy and society and, since the 19th century, we have been living in a period known as fossil capitalism. Oil and its derivatives have penetrated us as people and our lives. This is the starting point of Emma Puikkonen’s novel about oil – the black mirror of humanity. The magical beauty of this novel is that it bites into an enormous subject and forces the reader to think. Its black, shiny surface reflects themes eternal and current, such as oil’s relationship to nature and the environment, human courage and the role of women in different situations.
– Nordic Council Literary Prize jury

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

Backlist – Crime & Thrillers

USKOLLINEN LUKIJA
Tammi, 2019, 395 pp.

PAHAN VERKKO
Tammi, 2020, 448 pp.

KAUNA
Tammi, 2021, 430 pp.

LOUKKO
Tammi, 2022, 358 pp.

Reading material:
English editions

Jessica Niemi series

Max Seeck

New York Times Bestselling and Spiegel Bestselling series

✓  A New York Times Bestseller!

✓  International sensation! Sold to 40 countries and Hollywood!

✓  Book #3 The Last Grudge won the Glass Key Award of 2023!

✓  TV series in development!

✓  Max Seeck’s books have sold over 400,000 copies in Finland!

Book #1: The Witch Hunter
Detective Jessica Niemi is called to investigate an unordinary murder case. The wife of a famous writer, Roger Koponen, seems to have been killed in a bizarre ritual. As more ritual murders occur, it becomes obvious that Jessica is after a serial killer. But the murders are not random – they follow a pattern taken from Roger’s bestselling trilogy. Has a fan gone mad, or is this case more personal?

THE WITCH HUNTER, translated with icy precision by Kristian London, is written in short, sharp, present tense chapters, a technique which adds to its relentless tension. Flashbacks to earlier episodes in Jessica’s life suggest that the strangeness currently unfolding is tied to her personal history. Discovering the how and why of it brings a resolution as bleak as anything Poe might have conjured.
The Wall Street Journal

Book #2: The Ice Coven
Detective Jessica Niemi and her team have a new mystery on the table: a young woman’s corpse has been found on an icy beach, and two famous Instagram influencers have gone missing at the same time. While following the clues that are hidden deeply in Instagram Jessica struggles to keep her head clear. She keeps having repeating nightmares about her mother. And she has a feeling that something really awful is approaching her from the darkness…

A gripping page-turner. The novel’s compelling, exciting side cast of characters and the intense, twisting revelations of the case keep the pace of this book rushing forward to its climax. Thriller fans will finish The Ice Coven and be impatient to start the third, teased volume of the series.
– Booklist, USA

Book #3: The Last Grudge
Prominent business executive Eliel Zetterborg is found brutally murdered in his home in Helsinki. The company he led has just announced drastic cutbacks and Zetterborg gained hundreds of enemies and death threats in the process. But the murder motive becomes less clear, when the police finds out that the murderer had other targets as well. As Jessica Niemi suffers from a mental breakdown after her encounter with the witch coven, Jusuf gets a chance to lead the investigations and prove his skills as a police officer, while helping Jessica battle her demons that seem to be getting nearer and nearer…

THE LAST GRUDGE combines a classic locked room mystery and an action plot with murders and all, thus reminding one of both the world of Peter Wimsey, by Dorothy L. Sayers, and of the media-sexy descriptions of a battle of power within a powerful family, as evidenced by HBO’s Succession-series. The title is written in a gripping and exciting way, merging homeliness and horror in a way that’s very popular in crime literature at the moment.
– Glass Key Award jury 2023

Book #4: Ghost Island
Jessica Niemi travels to a remote island in the Åland archipelago, hoping to be left alone. At the same time, three elderly visitors, the remaining ‘birds of spring’ – former refugees who fled Finland as children during World War II and lived together for a few months in an orphanage on the island – arrive on the island. When one of the ‘birds of spring’ is found dead and Jessica learns about two other deaths also connected to the orphanage, Jessica can’t be sure if she’s facing a killer or— like a legend says—the ghost of Maija, a girl in a blue coat who would stand on the pier, looking out at the dark water until disappearing one night, never to be seen again. Uncertain what is real and what is not, Jessica desperately searches for answers that she hopes will stop the murders and finally silence her own demons once and for all…

Jessica Niemi is anything but ordinary, sort of a spiritual daughter of Lisbeth Salander [–] Seeck likes to play with the supernatural, which he does effectively here. [–] If you like your Scandi noir with a splash of horror, Ghost Island is a don’t-miss destination.
-Lisa Henricksson on Air Mail, USA
Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
ALBANIA: Muza
ARABIC: Arab Scientific Publishers (World Arabic)
ARMENIA: Guitank
AZERBAIJAN: Alatoran
BELGIUM, A.W. Bruna
BULGARIA: EMAS
CANADA: Berkley/Penguin Random House
CROATIA: Fokus (Book 1)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Grada
DENMARK: Gutkind
ESTONIA: Pegasus
FRANCE: Michel Lafon (Books 1-2)
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe
GREECE: Livanis (Book 1-2)
HUNGARY: Animus
ICELAND: Forlagid
ISRAEL: Tchelet Books (Book 1)
ITALY: Piemme (Books 1-2)
KOREA: Cheongmirae
LATIN AMERICA: Editorial Maeva/Maeva Noir
LATVIA: Latvijas Mediji
LITHUANIA: Baltos lankos (Book 1)
MACEDONIA: Matica
NETHERLANDS: A.W. Bruna
NORWAY: Aschehoug
POLAND: Sonia Draga (Books 1-2)
PORTUGAL: Bertrand Editora (Books 1-2)
ROMANIA: Litera (Books 1-2)
RUSSIA: AST
SERBIA: Vulkan
SLOVAKIA: Motýľ
SLOVENIA: Didakta
SPAIN: Editorial Maeva/Maeva Noir (Book 1)
SWEDEN: Albert Bonniers Förlag
TURKEY: Doğan Kitap
UKRAINE: Family Leisure Club
UNITED KINGDOM & COMMONWEALTH: Welbeck Publishing UK
UNITED STATES: Berkley/Penguin Random House

FILM & TV RIGHTS: Stampede Ventures (Greg Silverman)

MARIA KALLIO SERIES
Tammi, 1993-

Reading material:
English editions books 1-11
German editions 1-16
English samples & synopses books 12-16

Maria Kallio series

Leena Lehtolainen

Leena Lehtolainen has sold over 2,5 million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages. In the US, only Jo Nesbø has sold more copies!

✓  Maria Kallio turned into an international TV series, sold to 10 territories and counting, third season in production in 2024!

✓  The New York Times Nordic Noir Guide recommends Maria Kallio series!

✓  Finland’s bestselling female crime writer!

✓  English editions available for Maria Kallio books #1-11, published in the US by Amazon

Finland’s most popular crime series, the Maria Kallio mysteries, follows the career of a tough, down-to-earth and emotionally intelligent police officer who starts working in the Helsinki violent crimes unit. Every book centers around murder, but there are also elements of social issues, and Maria’s personal development is present throughout the series, as we follow her struggle to balance police work and motherhood.

The Maria Kallio series has been turned into an international TV series, the rights to which have been sold to 10 territories and counting! The series is produced by Jarowskij Finland and each episode is based on a Maria Kallio crime novel of the same name. The third season is in production in 2024 and the TV show is aimed at an international audience!

Book #16: A Crossing in the Darkness
The City of Espoo is being menaced by the Biris gang that steals designer clothing, phones, and jewelry from other youth. One night, one of the members is stabbed to death, in a case which seems clear. Maria’s unit is investigating while being threatened by a cut in funding.

Maria’s home feels empty as her children have left the nest. An acquaintance contacts Maria regarding sexual harassment, and Maria tries to help – but her intervention seems to make things worse. And as a boy goes missing from a children’s home and Biris threatens with revenge, Maria has her hands full.

Also available:
# 1: My First Murder
# 2: Her Enemy
# 3: Copper Heart
# 4: Snow Woman
# 5: Death Spiral
# 6: Fatal Headwind
# 7: Before I Go
# 8: Below the Surface
# 9: The Nightingale Murder
# 10: Derailed
# 11: Where Have All the Young Girls Gone
# 12: The Iron Triangle
# 13: A Stroke of Sadness
# 14: The End of Innocence
# 15: The Ripple Effect

International Sales of TV Series:
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, United Kingdom & Ireland, Italy & Italian Speaking Territories, Portugal & Portuguese speaking Territories, North America, Germany & German speaking Europe, Latin America, and Middle East.

Finland’s answer to Henning Mankell.
Brigitte magazine, Germany

Rights sold to Maria Kallio series 1-16:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
GERMANY: Rowohlt
FILM & TV RIGHTS: Jarowskij Finland (MTV3/CMore)

Maria Kallio Series Rights available in most territories worldwide!

ITALIALAINEN PELI
WSOY, August 2022, 414 pp.

SISILIALAINEN PUOLUSTUS
WSOY, August 2023, 391 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis for book #1
German sample book 1
Series presentation
Finnish edition

Salla Kotka series

Vera Vala

A thrilling crime series set in Milan, following a young forensic psychologist starting her career and immediately getting pulled into a threatening chain of events.

✓  Elena Ferrante meets Jo Nesbø!

✓  By a Finnish author who has lived in Italy for 25 years and written bestselling novels!

✓  The first installment in the series, The Italian Game, has sold over 10,000 copies in Finland!

Book #1: The Italian Game
The Greater Milan area lives in fear. A mysterious stalker is terrorizing people, and a serial killer called the Harlequin is picking their victims, branding them with jewelry. Are the two cases connected?

Salla Kotka, starting her career as a forensic psychologist, gets pulled into the threatening chain of events as she begins working for a defense attorney. Their client is the suspected serial killer, and her new job as a profiler seems like a battlefield, mined by suspicious colleagues and hostile clients. While Salla has to examine the darkest sides in others, she is also trying to come to terms with her own past. Can she trust anyone, even herself?

Book #2: The Sicilian Defense
The serial killer Harlequin is still at large, but Salla Kotka’s career as a forensic psychologist is progressing under the guidance of her mentor Ruth Segre. While interviewing serial killers, Salla meets again with a psychopath called the Groom. The man seems to know something about the Harlequin. But why does the Groom seem so interested in Salla?

Catching the Harlequin becomes even more important for Salla when the police claim that the perpetrator is someone close to Segre. Meanwhile, Salla is tortured by thoughts of her mother’s suspicious death and the secrets of the past.

Vala’s writing is edgy and she constructs the plot in multiple layers [—] The author vividly describes the contradictory culture, cuisine, and nature [of Italy], there is even romantic tension in the air.
– Sari Toivakka in Savon Sanomat newspaper

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

KONTTI
Otava, May 2021, 304 pp.

KIIKKU
Otava, October 2022, 304 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
German edition
Finnish edition

Paula Pihlaja series

A.M. Ollikainen

A fast-paced and addictive Nordic Noir series by the duo hailed as Finland’s Lars Kepler!

✓  A. M. Ollikainen is a pseudonym for the author duo Aki and Milla Ollikainen

✓  Cargo is the writers’ first novel together and the winner of a National Crime Novel Competition

✓  Rights sold in 15 languages!

Book #1: Cargo
A cargo container is found, washed up on the shore in Helsinki with a dead body inside.The property where the container is discovered, belongs to one of the most notorious businessmen in Finland. As Police Commissioner Paula Pihlaja begins to investigate the case, traces lead back to the businessman’s family, revealing decades of suspicious business ventures in Africa.

Meanwhile, Paula’s own personal life is shaken by old memories that are now surfacing following recent events.When she was younger, she had to give her baby up for adoption. The boy, her son, is now in his twenties and facing a murder charge. Not only is Paula tormented by her own guilt about the adoption, she is also worried about what will become of her son.

Book #2: Swing
An old woman is found hanged in a forest. Paula finds out that she had terminal cancer and had almost emptied her apartment, knowing to die soon. Her death is considered a suicide, but Paula is not satisfied with it. There is something wrong in the picture.

A famous mountain climber is found hanging above a seesaw in a playground. On the other end of the seesaw Paula finds sand that is far too fine to be natural – the same kind of sand that was found at the forest. Paula realizes that the victims have been forced to balance on a seesaw before death, fighting for their lives. Paula Pihlaja has barely started the investigation when a third body turns up – a teenage boy, at another playground, hanged. A serial killer is on the loose.

Finland is the new Mecca of crime fiction. You need proof? Just read the first novel by A.M. Ollikainen. I couldn’t imagine a better start for a series. CARGO is outstanding.
– Marco Schneiders, Publishing Director, Bastei Lübbe

 MORE INFO

 AUTHOR VIDEO

 360° VIEW

 DOWNLOAD ENGLISH MATERIALS

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Host (2 books)
DENMARK: Svane & Bilgrav (2 books)
ESTONIA: Varrak (2 books)
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe (2 books)
HUNGARY: Animus (2 books)
LATVIA: Zvaigzne (2 books)
LITHUANIA: Baltos Lankos (5 books)
NETHERLANDS: HarperCollins Holland (2 books)
NORWAY: Aschehoug (2 books)
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2 books)
RUSSIA: Gorodets (2 books)
SLOVENIA: Didakta (2 books)
SWEDEN: Bokfabriken (2 books)
TURKEY: April (2 books)

SINUN VARJOSSASI
WSOY, July 2022, 276 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen

The great post-#MeToo thriller

✓  A gripping page-turner about past trauma and the hunger for justice!

✓  A new thriller by the internationally bestselling author Martta Kaukonen, whose debut Follow the Butterfly has been sold to 16 territories, including UK & US!

✓ You can trust no one in this psychological thriller full of unexpected twist by “Finland’s Gillian Flynn” !

The harassment of women should be kept silent no longer, a small group of activists declares and demands justice. But at what price?

When #metoo spread through the media like wildfire, many victims of harassment felt hopeful – now we can talk about it, now the change begins. But the fire died, and things did not change. Traumas did not disappear, and justice is yet to come.

Sixty-year-old Anne hosts meetings for a group of people who will not be silenced. They start rehearsing a performance as an apology to the victims of harassment. Among them are acclaimed actress Minna who has spoken about her experiences publicly, former straight-A student Suvi who doesn’t want to leave her home anymore out of fear, and performance artist Roni who’s looking to upgrade his feminism from words to actions. Can they trust each other? Are they driven by a desire for justice or a wish for revenge?

In this novel, each member of the working group takes turns to be the narrator. Kaukonen touches on several current societal and cultural trends, particularly from the arts and culture.
Kaukonen, who also works as a film critic, uses overkill as a styliststic choice, which results in exaggeration in the most delicious way. Sometimes there’s horror, sometimes parody. As Kaukonen pushes and stretches the boundaries and edges of the activism of the characters in her novel, the reader wonders to what point the group is prepared to continue their performance.

– Anni Valtonen in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

Backlist – Romance & Feel-good

Logbook of Love
UMPIHANGESSA ALTTARILLE
Otava, October 2023, 336 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

Arctic Wedding Nightmare

Jenni Multisilta

A dream wedding underneath the northern lights – or a wedding nightmare before Christmas?

✓  A cheerful and witty romantic comedy set in the scenic Lapland!

✓  Latest title from the author of four suspenseful thrillers!

✓  For readers of Alexandria Bellefleur, Sophie Kinsella and Casey McQuiston!

Mila is a star vlogger, whose husband-to-be dumps her two weeks before the dream Christmas-time wedding of the century. For Mila, the idea of canceling the wedding is a disaster. And what’s even more important is to finish the wedding video series that her followers are eagerly waiting for!

To solve this, Mila persuades her former teenage crush to be her pretend fiancé. Soon Mila’s siblings, Jesse and Laura, also find themselves caught within the web of lies weaved by their sister.

The wedding preparations in beautiful Lapland start to resemble a nightmarish undercover operation. Will the lies hold until Christmas Eve? Will Santa Claus get kissed on the altar? For whom do the sleigh bells eventually ring?

Upcoming sequels to Arctic Wedding Nightmare:

Book #2: A Downhill Wedding (Autumn 2024)

Jesse and Arttu are getting married on Christmas Eve. December begins with an engagement trip to Iceland. After that, their fortunes take a downturn: a busy period at work takes Arttu away to Lapland, whilst Jesse remains in Helsinki to pack for their move, stress about the wedding preparations, and have his stag-do.

Book #3: A Wedding Under the Palm Trees (Autumn 2025)

Mum and Mamma have invited their family and friends to spend Christmas at their new home in Gran Canaria. Arttu and Jesse’s departure is delayed because of a shift-cover crisis at Jesse’s new workplace – a company which provides arctic activities and experiences.

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

KAMARINEITSYT / CHARLOTTA
Otava, 2020, 429 pp.

HURMURIHERTTUA / ARABELLA
Otava, 2021, 384 pp.

MARIAM
Otava, 2023, 450 pp.

Reading material: 
English samples and synopses
Finnish editions
Series presentation

Silk Sisters Series

Sara Medberg

Glamor, the courtly life, beautiful dresses, and passion! Bridgerton meets Jane Austen’s Emma with Nordic heroines!

✓  Series rights sold in 6 territories and counting!

✓  Sara Medberg’s books have sold over 43,500 copies in Finland!

Book #1: Charlotta

Seamstress Charlotta Silke is looking for her own Mr. Darcy in 19th century Åbo. When Baron Ridderlöw of Starfire Manor hires Charlotta as a lady’s maid for her sister, both their lives change for good. Charlotta gets her hands on Jane Austen’s newly published Pride and Prejudice, which alters the way she sees her role as a woman. But the book’s ideas of modern love, marriage and early feminism are put to the test as the bitter war-torn Baron Ridderlöw becomes romantically interested in Charlotta. Can an ordinary lady’s maid have it all – a meaningful life and the man of her dreams?

Book #2: Arabella

A story about the mistress of Blackthorn Castle, Arabella Öhrnmarck. She becomes widowed after an unhappy marriage and travels home to Stockholm to be near the Royal Court. But something strange is going on. Mystical incidents and threatening situations keep occurring. It seems that someone is out to silence her. What secret are they searching for? Then, a fascinating English duke begins to court Arabella…

Book #3: Mariam

Mariam, the daughter of a highborn Persian lady and a Swedish tradesman, moves to Porvoo in the midst of the Finnish War and becomes the talk of the whole city. When her brother is arrested in Sweden, Mariam doesn’t hesitate in running to his aid. She’s read Jane Austen’s new novel Emma, whose independent heroine encourages Mariam to act. A mysterious baron promises to help her, but can she trust him? And why do his silvery eyes remind Mariam of something?

Upcoming books in the Silk Sisters series:

Book #4: Eleonoora (2024)

When mademoiselle Elize Cavalier wakes up in an unknown man’s bed after her debutante ball at the Royal Castle in Copenhagen she knows she’s in trouble. Blacksmith Elias Jensen is just as surprised, but for other reasons. A scandal is in store!

Book #5: The Unruly Baroness (working title) (2025)

Baroness Morgenstierne has decided not to let conventions rule her life! She arranges a contest for her hand, to find a husband. But when admirers besiege the baroness, things get more complicated than she had envisioned and there’s an unforeseen turn of events…

Book #6: The King’s Beloved (working title) (2026)

Oslo, Norway, anno 1817. Crown prince Carl Johan of Sweden appears at palace maid Mariette’s cottage. A diary has been found, secrets come to light, Mariette is transferred to the Stockholm court. But will she always only be a rich man’s mistress?

Sara Medberg’s series from the Nordic manors and courts of the 19th Century is as fascinating as it is entertaining. The author’s knowledge about the historical period makes a solid base for the story, but does not stop the excitement, drama and desire from flowing through the pages. I am thrilled to be able to share these books with Norwegian lovers of historical feelgood and romance.
– Anja Gustavson, editor, Kagge Forlag, Norway

 MORE INFO

 AUTHOR VIDEO

 360° VIEW OF CHARLOTTA

 DOWNLOAD ENGLISH MATERIALS

Rights sold

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
DENMARK: People’s Press
ESTONIA: Varrak
NORWAY: Kagge Forlag
POLAND: Świat Książki
SWEDEN: Norstedts Förlag

KUOLEMA EHTOOLEHDOSSA
Teos, 2013, 305 pp.

EHTOOLEHDON PAKOLAISET
Teos, 2014, 256 pp.

EHTOOLEHDON TUHO
Teos, 2015, 280 pp.

Reading material: 
English editions
Finnish editions

Sunset Grove Trilogy

Minna Lindgren

“A very funny detective story starring two elderly ladies with the combined age of about 180 and Miss Marple-esque tendency to solve crimes.”

✓  International TV Series in development and shooting by Aurora Studios!

✓  An international hit! Rights sold in 18 territories!

✓  Miss Marple meets Golden Girls! For the fans of Richard Osman and “A Man Called Otto” by Fredrik Backman!

#1 Death in Sunset Grove

Who could imagine that anything illegal – whether it be suspicious deaths, thefts or the covert trading of medications – could happen in Sunset Grove retirement home? Its 90-year-old residents Siiri and Irma certainly can’t.

The lives of Siiri, Irma, and other Sunset Grove inhabitants are filled mostly with empty time punctuated by glasses of red wine, tram rides and funerals. Investigating the sudden strange occurrences at Sunset Grove, however, proves to be a more interesting pastime than playing cards with the ambassador and the woman in the wide-brimmed hat – not to mention the never-ending arts and crafts sessions, gym classes or accordion evenings (which the residents of the house attend mostly out of pity towards the employees).

 

#2 Escape from Sunset Grove

Sunset Grove retirement home turns into a kind of hell when it is taken over by foreign construction workers cursing fluently in Finnish. The noise is deafening, a hole appears in the wall, things disappear and residents have to use a portable toilet.

Residents Siiri, Irma and Anna-Liisa, all older than 90, decide to move into a shared apartment in the exotic neighbourhood of Hakaniemi. All three have their own habits and quirks, and life together isn’t entirely free of friction. The women also learn about the sad differences in quality with at-home assistance, and are forced to become familiar with terminal care and questions surrounding euthanasia.

Our heroes also can’t help looking into the suspicious plumbing project at Sunset Grove. As the mystery unfolds, they begin to find out that few people in this world have a fully clean record.

 

#3 The End of Sunset Grove

The final part of the trilogy marks a return to the retirement community. But the place no longer feels like home, and has turned into a state-funded, technology-driven pilot project in elderly care. The conclusion brings together characters lost along the way, and murky details are brought to light. Legal justice is also served – in unexpected ways. A natural, long-awaited death finally collects some, but still not all, of our main characters.

Lindgren perfectly captures the universal confusions (Siiri and Irma attend the funeral of the wrong person) and uncertainties of old age (how many of their friends will still be alive in a week to attend a reunion luncheon?) in the service of a captivating plot. Readers will eagerly await the sequel.
Publishers Weekly, United States

 MORE INFO

 360° VIEW

 DOWNLOAD ENGLISH MATERIALS

Rights sold

FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Jensen & Dalgaard
ESTONIA: Varrak
FRANCE: Calmann-Lévy
GERMANY: Kiepenheuer & Witsch
GREECE: Enalios
HUNGARY: Kossuth
ISRAEL: Yedioth Books
ITALY: Marsilio
LATVIA: Petergailis
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
SLOVAKIA: Albatros Media
SPAIN: Penguin Random House
SWEDEN: Norstedts
UNITED KINGDOM: Pan Macmillan
UNITED STATES: Pan Macmillan
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi

FILM & TV RIGHTS: Aurora Studios

PINTAREMONTTI
Otava, September 2020, 300 pp.

Reading material:
English sample
Finnish edition
German edition
Norwegian edition

Facelift

Miika Nousiainen

A tragicomic tale of life’s biggest questions and their surprisingly simple answers.

✓  An entertaining, witty, and clever novel by Finland’s most beloved and bestselling humor writer!

✓  Over 100,000 copies sold in Finland! TV series in development by Yellow Film!

✓  Miika Nousiainen’s books have sold half a million copies in Finland to date!

✓  TV series in development by Yellow Film!

Sami has a dream: he desperately wants to be a father. His biological clock has been ticking for the past 15 years so loudly that sometimes it’s hard to hear his own thoughts. But it’s not so easy to become a father. First of all, you need to find a suitable future mother candidate.

But when Sami’s latest future-mother-candidate rides off with a biker guy, he makes a series of bad choices that cause him to anger the local motorcycle gang. How to fix a life where everything seems to go wrong? Sini, a wellbeing blogger with perfectly instagrammable life arrives to offer a solution.

Reading a novel by Nousiainen is like a scenic ride in a ropeway: a comfortable, entertaining spectacle while looking into deep abysses. I can’t wait to read more, start laughing and at the same time have this awkward and thrilling feeling of facing existential questions.
– Patrick Sielemann, Editor, Kein & Aber, Germany

 MORE INFO

 360° VIEW

 DOWNLOAD ENGLISH MATERIALS

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECH REPUBLIC: Host
ESTONIA: Eesti Raamat
GERMANY: Kein & Aber
NORWAY: Vigmostad & Bjørke
RUSSIA: Livebook
SERBIA: Odiseja

FILM & TV RIGHTS: Yellow Film

Backlist – Speculative Fiction

KUUNPÄIVÄN KIRJEET
Teos, September 2020, 336 pp.

Reading material:
English edition
Finnish edition

The Moonday Letters

Emmi Itäranta

A scifi mystery and a love story that bends space, time, myth and science.

✓  Third novel by internationally bestselling and award-winning author

✓  Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award of 2024 and the British Science Fiction Association Awards of 2023!

✓  Winner of the Tähtivaeltaja Award of 2021!

✓  English edition available, written by Emmi Itäranta and published by Titan Books!

The Moonday Letters has elements of clifi, elements of suspense, and feels Golden Age-y in its imagination of how space has been colonized in the wake of Earth’s transformation.

Lumi is an Earth-born healer whose Mars-born spouse Sol disappears unexpectedly on a work trip. As Lumi begins her quest to find Sol, she delves gradually deeper into Sol’s secrets – and her own.

While recalling her own path to becoming a healer under the guidance of her mysterious teacher Vivian, she discovers an underground environmental group called Stoneturners, which may have something to do with Sol’s disappearance. Lumi’s search takes her from the wealthy colonies of Mars to Earth that has been left a shadow of its former self due to vast environmental destruction. Gradually, she begins to understand that Sol’s fate may have been connected to her own for much longer than she thought.

Part space-age epistolary, part eco-thriller, The Moonday Letters is also a love story between two individuals from very different worlds.

This tour of the solar system – including an ecologically ravaged Earth, where an economic underclass maintains a few habitable regions as tourist destinations – is reminiscent of Kim Stanley Robinson. But Itäranta weaves a distinctive thread into her tapestry: Lumi is a shamanic healer whose pursuit of Sol takes her to the spirit realm as well as to celestial bodies, along the way re-examining their marriage in all its strengths and faults. The resulting narrative brilliantly weaves together its two central questions: whether one marriage can survive, and whether humanity can find a way to thrive that does not ultimately rest on exploitation and inequality.
The Guardian

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Rights sold:

FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Kniha Zlin/Albatros
HUNGARY: Metropolis
WORLD ENGLISH (print, e-book): Titan Books
WORLD ENGLISH (audio): Recorded Books

TEEMESTARIN KIRJA
Teos, September 2012, 266 pp.

Reading material:
English edition
Finnish edition

Memory of Water

Emmi Itäranta

A story of growing up, of the power of friendship – and, above all, undying hope in a wrecked world

✓  International hit: rights sold to over 25 territories!

✓  Winner of the Young Aleksis Prize of 2013 and the Kalevi Jäntti Prize of 2012!

✓  Nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Golden Tentacle Award! Included on the Honor List of the Otherwise Award (formerly James Tiptree, Jr. Award)!

✓  International Feature film premiered in Finland in September 2022! Distribution in Germany, Italy, Sweden confirmed with more territories to come!

✓  Emmi Itäranta’s writing has been compared to that of Ursula K. Le Guin!

The story is set in a drought-ravaged, war-ridden future world where fresh water has become the privilege of a few and tea masters have been keepers of natural springs for centuries, Memory of Water tells the story of seventeen-year-old Noria, set to become the next tea master in her village. When her father dies, she finds herself alone with the dangerous responsibility of guarding a hidden spring that can save lives – or provoke people to kill.

As war spreads into her homeland, Noria’s loyalties are torn between keeping her duty and helping her dearest friend Sanja, whose family can barely survive on their water rations. Together the girls unearth knowledge about the past that has remained buried too long and begin to plan a journey to the Lost Lands, forbidden areas that might hold unexplored water resources.

Yet the web of the military is closing in on Noria’s secret. Sanja disappears mysteriously, and Noria is placed under house arrest. Knowing her own life is in danger, Noria must face a choice in order to secure the hidden information for others.

The writing is gorgeous and delicate in this dystopian, award-winning debut, which is unique in both its setting and the small scale the Finnish author Itäranta employs. A larger world, with huge problems, is hinted at, but not shown. Because the reader stays with the beautifully-realized character of Noria and the village she inhabits, the tension is high even though the pacing remains measured.
Library Journal, starred review, US

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Rights sold:

FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
ALBANIA: Dituria
ARABIC: Dar Al Muna
BRAZIL: Record
BULGARIA: Perseus
CHINA: Sichuan People’s Publishing House
CROATIA: VBZ
CZECH REPUBLIC: Albatros Media/Plus
DENMARK: Turbine
ESTONIA: Koolibri
FRANCE: Place des Editeurs
GEORGIA: Palitra L Publishing
HUNGARY: Metropolis Media
ITALY: Sperling&Kupfer
JAPAN: Nishimura Shoten
KOREA: The Book in My Life
LATVIA: Janis Roze
LITHUANIA: Nieko Rimto
NETHERLANDS: Atlas Contact
NORWAY: Gresvik Forlag
RUSSIA: Text Publishers
SERBIA: Heliks
SPAIN: Ediciones B.
SWEDEN: Modernista
TURKEY: Dogan Egmont
WORLD ENGLISH: HarperCollins

FILM & TV RIGHTS: Bufo

ENNEN PÄIVÄNLASKUA EI VOI
Tammi, November 2000, 268 pp.

Reading material:
English edition
Finnish edition

Troll

Johanna Sinisalo

“A punk version of “The Hobbit”” – USA Today

✓  Winner of the Finlandia Prize of 2000! Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award of 2004!

✓  An international bestseller with rights sold to 19 territories!

✓  Film rights sold to Måns Mårlind (“The Bridge”) & Tuppence Middleton (“Downton Abbey: A New Era”)!

✓  Johanna Sinisalo has won the Prometheus Award of 2017 and been nominated for the Nebula Award of 2008, the Prix Escapades of 2012, and the Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire of 2017!

Mikael, a young gay photographer, finds a small, man-like creature in the courtyard of his apartment block. It is a young troll, familiar from Scandinavian mythology: a demonic, wild beast. And it is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. Supposedly extinct, today it is regarded as a hairy, cuddly toy by Nordic children. Mikael gives the troll a name, Pessi, and takes him home and hides him.

The first thing Mikael does is research everything he can about trolls on the internet, from folklore, nature journals, and newspaper clippings. Despite his studies, Mikael does not learn that trolls exude pheromones that smell like a Calvin Klein aftershave and that this has a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those around him. Shooting an assignment for an ultra-hip brand of jeans, Mikael finds himself fast-tracked into a dangerous liaison with Martes, the sexually ambivalent art director of the advertising agency concerned, while a couple of his friends in turn fall in love with him because he carries the troll’s scent.

What Mikael fails above all to learn, with tragic consequences, is that Pessi the troll is the interpreter of man’s darkest, most forbidden impulses.

[A] dark fable … Troll offers an ingenious dramatization of the nightmare of blurred boundaries between species, and a disturbing dystopian vision reminiscent of Karel Capek’s classic War with the Newts. A fascinating black comedy, from a writer who has made the transition to literary fiction with a giant’s strides.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
ALBANIA: Dituria
BRAZIL: Devir
BULGARIA: Perseus
CZECH REPUBLIC: One Woman Press
DENMARK: Jensen & Dalgaard
FRANCE: Actes Sud
GERMANY: Tropen Verlag
ITALY: Guanda Editore
JAPAN: Sunmark Publishing Inc,
LATVIA: SIA Apgads Atena
LITHUANIA: VAGA Publishers
POLAND: Terytoria
RUSSIA: Amphora
SLOVENIA: Modrijan Zalozba
SPAIN: Ediciones Poliedro
SWEDEN: Wahlström & Widstrand
UK: Grove Atlantic
USA: Grove Atlantic

FILM & TV RIGHTS: Marlind International AB

AURINGON YDIN
Teos, November 2013, 340 pp.

Reading material:
English edition
Finnish edition

The Core of the Sun

Johanna Sinisalo

From the queen of “Finnish weird,” a captivating and witty speculative satire of The Handmaid’s Tale-esque welfare state where women are either breeders or outcasts, addicts chase the elusive high of super-hot chili peppers, and one woman is searching for her missing sister.

✓  Rights sold to 12 territories!

✓  Winner of the Prometheus Award of 2017!

✓  Feature film in development in Los Angeles!

Set in an alternative historical present, in an “eusistocracy”—an extreme welfare state—that holds public health and social stability above all else, The Core of the Sun follows a young woman whose growing addiction to illegal chili peppers leads her on an adventure into a world where love, sex, and free will are all controlled by the state.

The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland has bred a new human sub-species of receptive, submissive women, called eloi, for sex and procreation, while intelligent, independent women are relegated to menial labor and sterilized. How did Finland turn into the North Korea of Europe? 

Johanna Sinisalo’s tautly told story of fight and flight is also a feisty, between-the-lines social polemic—a witty, inventive, and fiendishly engaging read.

Written with wit and grace—Sinisalo describes depression as “a smooth-walled cavity, an open, echoing cave with a darkness living in it deeper than the space between the stars”—the novel maintains an impressive grasp on plot and suspense, easily luring the reader into taking its characters, politics, and striking story to heart.
Kirkus Reviews

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Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
CHINA: CITIC Press
CZECHIA: Euromedia
DENMARK: Jensen & Dalgaard
FRANCE: Actes Sud
GERMANY: Klett-Cotta
HUNGARY: Metropolis Media Group Kft.
LATVIA: Izdevnieciba Petergailis SIA
SPAIN: Roca Editorial
TURKEY: Ithaki Yayinlari
UNITED STATES: Grove Atlantic USA
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi

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