Two more Ahlback Agency titles nominated for Young Aleksis Award!

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Recently, we announced the good news that THE INVISIBLES by Sanna Isto was nominated for the Young Aleksis Award, and now we are pleased to report that ØRJA by Riikka Sandberg and A DISOBEDIENT GIRL by Sara Al Husaini have also been nominated!

The Young Aleksis Award jury is made up of young adults. So while these titles are literary fiction, we highly recommend them for young adult readers.

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

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?

Click here to access all reading materials for ØRJA!

 

A DISOBEDIENT GIRL is the winner of the BookBeat Newcomer of the Year Award, a novel that shakes the reader to their core.

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.

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.

Click here to access all reading materials for A DISOBEDIENT GIRL!

ØRJA

Publication Info:
Ørja, Otava 2023, 395 p.

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig), SWEDEN: Norstedts

Rights to ØRJA still available in Germany, Norway, Denmark…

Reading Materials:
English sample and synopsis, Finnish and Swedish editions

 

A DISOBEDIENT GIRL

Publication Info:
Huono tyttö, Like 2023, 295 p.

Rights to A DISOBEDIENT GIRL still available in the US/UK, Poland, France

Reading Materials:
English sample, Finnish edition

About author


Riikka Sandberg

Riikka Sandberg (b. 1989) is a Finnish author who grew up in the midst of boatsheds and the sea breeze. She studied Finnish and creative writing at the University of Turku and currently teaches at the University of Helsinki. Sandberg’s debut book Ørja was published in February 2023 and has been described as a thoughtfully constructed novel in which the fjords and the churning sea set a grand stage.

Sandberg is inspired by the Nordic languages, history and nature, and the fictional isles in her debut novel Ørja were inspired by a small and rugged Norwegian island to where she retreated alone to write. Eventually she carried out research for her novel in Norway, the Faroe Islands and the Finnish Lapland and archipelago. Sandberg considers it important to write about women who are, for one reason or another, cast out or have themselves left the society or their community, and about those who have forgotten to live their own truth.

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About author


Sara Al Husaini

Sara Al Husaini (1992) is a human rights activist, feminist, and linguist from Helsinki. She was born in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia and moved to Finland as a child. She has studied English philology at the University of Helsinki and has worked, among others, as an intern at the European Parliament. She is currently a board member in Amnesty Finland and member of the steering group for UN Women Finland. In 2021, Al Husaini was chosen as the Refugee Woman of the Year by the Finnish Refugee Council.

Her debut novel A Disobedient Girl (orig. Huono tyttö) is a deeply personal story of experiences for which there haven’t been words before. Al Husaini's writing delves into the human psyche, weaving a tale that unravels the threads of cultural expectations and the resilience of those who defy them. Through her storytelling, Al Husaini seeks to provoke thought, challenge stereotypes, and ignite conversations that lead to meaningful societal shifts.

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