Introducing NEW AUTHORS Fall 2022 Catalogue!

Riikka Pulkkinen: Enchantment

“Riikka Pulkkinen is a Finnish Joyce Carol Oates” – Livres Hebdo, France

Riikka Pulkkinen (b. 1980) is one of the stars of the Finnish literature. Her international breakthrough came with her second novel True (2010), which has been published in 17 countries to date.  Pulkkinen received the Kaarle award and the Laila Hirvisaari Fund’s stipend in 2007. The Veijo Meri Prize was awarded in 2019, and the novel True was nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2010.

Enchantment (Lumo, Otava, August 2022)

This shiningly beautiful novel is an autopsy of girlhood and power.
Philippa Laakso, aged seventeen, is found dead in her home yard. Nothing suggests a crime, and everyone who knew her is certain she wasn’t suicidal, and hold a differing view of her. Behind every view and story there is Philippa’s influence.  Riikka Pulkkinen’s anticipated novel examines the power and comfort of make-believe and the thin line between love and play.

 

Author Photo: Jonne Räsänen

Enchantment
Literary Fiction

Leena Parkkinen : Miss Stein’s Cook

Leena Parkkinen has authored three prize-winning adults’ novels set. Her skillful use of detail is often imbued with an element of suspense. She has also written two children’s story books.

Parkkinen has received numerous literary awards, such as Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for the best debut (2009), Academic Bookshop’s Bestselling Debut Prize (2009) etc. Her works have been translated into seven languages.

Miss Stein’s Cook (Neiti Steinin Keittäjätär, Otava, August 2022)

A fabulous historical novel about a crime that separates two sisters, It’s also about love that sets one human to serve another.

In Parainen Finland, two sisters end up in terrible bloodshed. However, twenty years later in Paris, the world-famous Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas hire a cook for their  household. They hire Margit, one of the two sisters from Parainen. The roles of the cook and the servant define both Margit and Alice, who is Stein’s lover, editor, muse, and typewriter. A special trust and tension is born between the women.

 

Author Photo: Katja Lösönen

Miss Stein’s Cook

Literary Fiction

Hanna Meretoja: The Night of Ancient Lights

Hanna Meretoja is an internationally renowned literary scholar, a professor of comparative literature, and narrative theorist. Her monographs include The Ethics of Storytelling: Narrative Hermeneutics, History, and the Possible (2018, Oxford University Press). Her work is mainly in the fields of narrative studies, cultural memory studies, and trauma studies. As a novelist, Meretoja has a unique lyrical voice that seamlessly threads cultural theory and philosophy into a poetic, ruptured narrative with an acute sense of lived experience.

The Night of Ancient Lights (Elotulet, WSOY, June 2022)

Close friends come together on the night of Ancient Lights to watch the chain of bonfires blaze across the archipelago and talk through their pasts and futures as the proximity of death ignites an intense passion for life.
The novel has been praised for its lyrical language, wisdom and boldness, complex philosophical reflection on illness, precise narration, and passion for life, love and nature.

Author Photo: Maria Grönroos

The Night of Ancient Lights
Literary Fiction

Vera Vala: The Italian Game

Vera Vala’s roots are in Finland, but her soul belongs to Italy, where she has been living for over 25 years. She has an infinite thirst for knowledge that has taken her to study various academic subjects from Physics to Assyriology and Romance Languages, and the information acquired during those years has been useful as background research for her novels. Currently, Vera lives in Milan where she is studying to become a clinical psychologist with a special interest in Forensic Psychology.

The Italian Game (Italialainen peli, WSOY, August 2022)

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 jewellery. 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 Salla needs to help the defense uncover the truth.

  Author Photo: Mikko Rasila

 The Italian Game

Crime

Heidi Holmavuo and Elina Backman: Unsolved – The Case of Elli Immo

Elina Backman is an author and a media & marketing professional living in Helsinki. Her debut novel All the King’s Men was published in 2020 and immediately gained an enormous amount of attention from the Finnish media, including a praising review by Helsingin Sanomat. The Havas series is now a best-selling series in Finland, with All the King’s Men sold in 15 territories to-date, and an international TV series is in development.

Heidi Holmavuo is a crime writer and journalist. Her lengthy cooperation with the authorities, along with writing a book and a TV series about the Finnish Police Rapid Response Unit (colloquially known as the Bear Squad), have made Heidi a talented crime writer.

Unsolved – The Case of Elli Immo (Ratkaisematon – kirja, joka avasi murhatutkinnan, Otava,  June 2022)

A true crime story of a murder committed 67 years ago, the case was reopened based on the work of two private detectives

Crime writers Elina Backman and Heidi Holmavuo started investigating an old case in the 2020s. They travelled to the town of Kemi where a murder happened long ago, interviewed locals and heard chilling things previously kept secret. Based on their research, the police decided to reopen the investigation.

Author Photo: Atte Malaska

Unsolved – The Case of Elli Immo
Crime

Mari Tossavainen: Ella – Helene Schjerfbeck

Mari Tossavainen, PhD, is an art historian who has, in her previous works, written about Finnish sculpture of the late 1800s and early 1900s and about the renowned Finnish sculptor, Emil Wikström.

Ella – Helene Schjerfbeck (Ella, Otava,  September 2022)

The story of the most well-known Finnish artist in the world Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946), supplemented by previously unpublished correspondence and archival materials.

In her letters, Schjerfbeck divulged both her works and her thoughts not only to fellow artists, but also to people outside the artistic world. Among others, this book elucidates the friendship between Schjerfbeck and her childhood governess, Lina Ingman. The letters Schjerfbeck wrote to Ingman during the 1920s and 1930s have warmth in them and she signed them with her beloved childhood nickname, Ella.

Author Photo:  Heikki Löflund

Ella – Helene Schjerfbeck
Narrative Non-Fiction

Hannu Aaltonen and Tapio Keskitalo: The Black Book of Football 

Hannu Aaltonen (right) works as an editor at the Finnish News Agency STT and is a football fan for whom football has been and is still a lifelong passion.

Tapio Keskitalo (left) is a sports editor for the Finnish News Agency STT who travels the world because of football, both for work and during his free time.

The Black Book of Football ( Jalkapallon musta kirja, Otava, September 2022)

A critical depiction of the destructive power of money in professional association football

During the 2000s, international association football has become a pompous, money-driven business. This startling book delves into the outrageously wealthy and powerful football clubs that do not abide by football’s own economic rules. Influential football bosses and governing bodies have become bogged down in bribe scandals, while small football countries like Finland have to count pennies.

Author Photo: Jonne Räsänen

The Black Book of Football
General Non-Fiction

Kimmo Rentola: Stalin and the Fate of Finland

Kimmo Rentola (b. 1953), PhD, is a historian and professor of political history, at the University of Turku from 2006 to 2014 and at the University of Helsinki since 2014. In his research, Rentola has specialized in the history of the Cold War, the relationships between Finland and the Soviet Union, and both Finnish and Nordic communism. His other research areas are the youth movements of the 1960s and the history of intelligence agencies.

Stalin and the Fate of Finland (Stalin ja Suomen kohtalo, Otava, 2016)

A meticulously-researched insight into critical points in the history of relations between Finland and the Soviet Union. The book focuses on the decisions of Stalin in which the entire existence or, at the very least, the essential nature of that existence, of Finland was at stake. STALIN AND THE FATE OF FINLAND has won the Lauri Jäntti Award for non-fiction literature in 2017.

Author Photo: Tero Söderholm

Stalin and the Fate of Finland
General Non-Fiction

Elina Pitkäkangas: Sang

Elina Pitkäkangas is an author from Nokia, Finland, and an active advocate of YA literature. She has written five novels and produces book-related videos to TikTok and Youtube.

Sang (Sang, WSOY, September 2022)

An epic novel about love and power in a fictional East Asia of the future! Sang is the the first novel in a new fantasy duology.

The state of Fusang is recovering from a war that ravaged the world. 16-year-old Kong Dawei, an earnest young man, is living in a poor mountain village and tries to pay his adopted siblings’ citizen dues by transporting contraband goods at night.

After a series of unfortunate events, Dawei ends up in the southern capital which is ruled by the cruel matriarch of the White Tiger Clan. When there is nothing else to lose, Dawei has only one goal: to get back to his loved ones – whatever it takes.

Author Photo: Marjaana Malkamäki

Sang
Young Adults

Satu Varjonen and Mari Luoma: Who Nose?

Satu Varjonen has worked as a freelance editor for 17 years, during which she’s written e.g. for most Finnish women’s magazines. When it comes to storytelling, it is children’s literature that gets her heart beating. Who Nose? in the Thelma the Tenacious Witch series is her debut.

Author Photo: Marina Rotkus

Mari Luoma is an illustrator and a comic artist. She has illustrated several children’s books and designs funny and quirky characters for various media.

Who Nose? (Voihan nenä!, Minerva, September 2021)

A humorous and magical series about the adventures of a young witch girl, written by Satu Varjonen with gleeful illustrations by Mari Luoma!

A heart-warming story about accepting differences and loving oneself!

Thelma, the little witch girl, starts school and ends up literally nose to nose with the popular girl, Ornelia. However, the extraordinary witch girl doesn’t get startled easily and decides to give it her all to fit in.

After a bunch of mishaps, Thelma realizes that instead of trying to please everybody, it is best to be yourself!

Illustrator Photo: Kieran Sheehan

Who Nose?
Chapter Books