Introducing the Finlandia Prize winner 2021 Anne-Maija Aalto with the YA novel WHERE THE LIGHT COMES IN

We are incredibly proud to announce that the Finlandia Prize winner for Children’s & Young Adult Literature this year, Anne-Maija Aalto with the YA novel WHERE THE LIGHT COMES IN is now represented by Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency.

Join us in welcoming and congratulating Anne-Maija Aalto!

Finlandia Prize winner Anne-Maija Aalto’s WHERE THE LIGHT COMES IN is the dystopian love story of two very different characters with different values set in a water-covered former Japan.
Download the Finnish pdf for WHERE THE LIGHT COMES IN from this link.

The English sample and synopsis are available in early January 2022. If you need a Finnish reader or translator, find them here.

Finlandia Prize Jury’s motivations:

The narration is effortless, the world distant yet timely. The great questions of humanity are present. The story elegantly invites young people to see how their relationships with their parents can change when they get to know them better.

• Perttu Pölönen, Futurist, Non-Fiction Author

Finlandia Prize winner: WHERE THE LIGHT COMES IN
by Anne-Maija AaltoWhat is a person if you take away their memory? Who determines what we believe? A captivating story of rebellion, hope and humanity.

Alexei is a young man whose father runs a human research institute in Tokyo, which is now partly covered by the sea. New cargoes of test subjects regularly arrive at the facility, one containing Satomi, a young woman whose memory is set to be erased. Satomi becomes Alexei’s trial case, since he is meant to continue his father’s work. But something is already churning beneath the surface, and the younger generation can see the horrors of the system their parents have created.

WHERE THE LIGHT COMES IN won the Finlandia Prize and was also selected as the audience favorite among the Finlandia Prize for Children’s & Young Adult Literature nominees at the Cultural Gala held in December 2021..

The Finlandia Prize for Children’s & Young Adult Literature is a recognition presented by the Finnish Book Foundation for meritorious Finnish children’s and young adult writing. The amount of the award is 30,000 euros. The Finlandia Prizes were presented on December 1, 2021.

Anne-Maija Aalto (b. 1988) holds a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from the University of Turku. She enjoys good stories and traveling to foreign cities. Her acclaimed debut novel Into Deep Water was published in 2016. Her second novel, Dragonfly, appeared in 2020 and was nominated for the Topelius Prize. Her 2021 Where the Light Comes In is the 2021 Finlandia Prize winner.

Bibliography:

*   Into Deep Water, 2016
*   Dragonfly, 2020 – Topelius Prize nominee 2020
*   Where the Light Comes In, 2021  – Finlandia Prize winner 2021