The Moonday Letters

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

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.

Praise:

“Itäranta's language is beautiful, and depictions almost poetic. The story grows, as emotions, clues, past, secrets and truth open like flowers. The plot flows forward and the mystery keeps readers hooked up. And it is a pleasure to read.” - Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

"Strong ethical questions, a deeply and thoughtfully constructed multidimensional world of stories, beautifully and delicately rhythmic language, and the belief in one’s ability to do what's right permeate the novel." - Turun Sanomat newspaper

"’The Moonday Letters’ is melancholic but hauntingly beautiful. It's like a song of love and endless homesockness. It's about yearning forthe past that is lost because of our actions." - Maaseudun Tulevaisuus newspaper

"Emmi Itäranta is an outstanding voice of the contemporary Finnish literature. Her new book MOONDAY LETTERS seems to be a work of genre, but it is much more than a sci-fi or cli-fi novel as it deals with both everlasting and burning up-to-date themes in a unique poetic frame and language. I am thrilled that we can present it to Czech readers in cooperation with the experienced translator Michal Švec."

Jitka Hanušová, Kniha Zlin, Albatros Media, Czech republic