Ahlback Agency hot titles for Spring 2025 – Apply now for the FILI grants!

Spring book fair season continues! Best regards from successful and busy London and Bologna book fairs, where Ahlback Agency’s hot titles created a lot of buzz and interest. We are highlighting below the most requested titles, and we are happy to inform you that the FILI Spring 2025 grant application period is now open and will last until 1^st of May 2025.

Now is the perfect time to acquire your Finnish bestseller and award-winner!
Check out our Spring Catalogue here: Ahlback Agency Spring 2025 – and latest news here: Ahlback Agency News

FILI offers grants to support the translation of Finnish literature. These grants are intended for publishers outside Finland and are to be applied towards the translator’s fee. Grants are awarded for translating works of fiction and general non-fiction, children’s and young adult (YA) books, and comics and graphic novels from the Finnish, Finland-Swedish and Sámi languages. Grants are awarded to cover part of the translation cost, on average, 50 to 70 per cent. Grants are also available for reader reports and printing costs for comics and graphic novels and for children’s picture books. Furthermore, foreign publishers can apply to FILI for promotional support for visits by Finnish authors.
Read more here: APPLY FOR FILI GRANTS

Summer at Villa Hilda

Michaela von Kügelgen

Many people dream of a second chance in life, but how many dare to take it?

✓ A new feel-good series with Mamma Mia vibes in the Stockholm archipelago!

Far out in the Stockholm archipelago lies the island of Halsterö. Journalist Thomas and former celebrity chef Louise travel there to work at the Villa Hilda guesthouse. They are both broken after many setbacks and are hoping for a fresh start. But setting up a summer paradise is not as easy as one might think, not even on the idyllic Halsterö island.

One day Louise stumbles across a collection of old love letters. Who wrote them, and what stories does Villa Hilda hide in its dusty attic? And how will Thomas manage to take care of his dementia-stricken mother while setting up an archipelago guesthouse?

Summer at Villa Hilda is about how difficult it is to be human among other people, but also about how, with the help of others, one can find one’s way back to life.

This novel is the first part of the Villa Hilda series and will be published in June 2025. The following titles will concentrate on the people living on the picturesque Halsterö island and will tentatively be published in February 2026 and September 2026.

Download materials for SUMMER AT VILLA HILDA here!

 

Crimson Web

Aamos Honka

A frighteningly topical debut thriller from an insider in the intelligence world, revealing the hidden heart of secrets ops and hybrid warfare.

✓ A critical success and an instant bestseller with more than 10,000 copies sold!
✓ Aamos Honka’s work with the Finnish intelligence agencies gives him insider access to the world of national security and foreign intelligence

Planes collide in London. Electricity and information networks are attacked in Finland. Janne Peura from military intelligence and Laura Vesterinen from the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service track down signs of foreign power operations. When Janne and Laura’s lines cross, they take on major roles in a high stakes international game.

Once you read the book, the news headlines will never look the same to you.

Download materials for CRIMSON WEB here!

 

By the Seashore: How Writers Discovered the Sea

Sanna Nyqvist

Follow Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Tove Jansson and other classic writers to the beach and experience the landscape through the eyes of a writer.

✓ Nominated for the 2024 Finlandia Prize in Non-Fiction

By the Seashore is a fascinating journey through salt-scented cultural history and to the authors’ favourite beaches. Jane Austen adventured along the south coast of England, Marcel Proust returned year after year to the shimmering light of Normandy, and Tove Jansson created her own paradise on an island in the Gulf of Finland. The magic of the beaches is part of our shared experience and our relationship with nature. But how long will we be able to experience our beloved beaches as they are now? This was already being pondered by August Strindberg in the late 19th century, when industry and tourism were shaping the Stockholm archipelago.

By the Seashore is a gripping and surprising account of why beaches have become landscapes of emotion, safe havens as well as  islands of adventure.

Download materials for BY THE SEASHORE here!

 

Deep in the Woods

Päivi Lukkarila

Four very different teens sent on a smartphone-free wilderness expedition… Finlandia Prize-winning and bestselling mystery story for 13+!

✓ Stand by Me meets The Blair Witch Project
✓ More than 10,000 copies sold!

The expedition is only supposed to last three days, but a fateful event changes everything and the teens have to survive in the wild without their guide. They try to entertain each other with ghost stories, and as they tell them, their own frightening childhood experiences come back to haunt them. There seems to be something creepy about their surroundings. What was it in there that spooked all the tourists and will the four be left to wander the wilds until their final days?

Download materials for DEEP IN THE WOODS here!

 

The Marvelous Suitcase

Sanna Sofia Vuori, illustrated by Silja-Maria Wihersaari

A suitcase full of wonders.

✓ A charming and enchanting children’s tale by the Finlandia and Runeberg Prize-nominated author and awarded illustrator

“Daria Duck staggered down the hill, kicking up sand and wobbling her bowler hat. She was on her way to see her best friend, Froberta Frog.”

Daria spots a battered suitcase in Froberta’s gateway. What on earth could be in it?

One by one, the neighbours turn up at Froberta’s house to wonder about the strange suitcase. Each visitor invents a story about what might be inside that reflects their own personality. For example, Brynn Brimstone-Butterfly’s imagination is full of fairies and dew beads. Shelley the Snail, on the other hand, thinks the contents will be a rockstar’s guitar. Finally, the suitcase is opened and the contents delight everyone!

Download materials for THE MARVELOUS SUITCASE here!

 

Twin World Series: Saving Atlantis

Siri Kolu

A myth-busting, suspense-filled series for a late middle grade and early YA audience.

✓ For the readers of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising Sequence and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series!

Can Atlantis be saved before disaster strikes?

12-year-old El(ektra) starts sleepwalking and has recurring nightmares of masses of water under which there is no escape. After doing research with her friends Maxxam and Cal, El discovers that the underwater city in her nightmares is ancient Atlantis.

In the city of Atlantis, young Elektra has strange dreams at night about tall glass towers and flying planes. With inventor genius Dobro, Elektra begins to test whether the visions could be real. Based on the dreams, they build a submarine called a wave diver.

Can the Elektras help each other? Can they be rescued from under the waves…and what would it cost?

Download materials for TWIN WORLD SERIES: SAVING ATLANTIS here!

 

Daughter of Two Bloods

S. K. Rostedt

A debut enemies-to-lovers romantasy novel oozing with fae, demons, and hot romance

✓ Chosen by the readers as one of the Top 100 Finnish books of the 21st century!
✓ More than 10,000 copies sold!
✓ For the fans of Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, Victoria Aveyard, and Jennifer L. Armentrout

Remena is a land where humans and fae coexist, seemingly on equal terms. The elves who control magic live in their own territory in Keto under the authority of an elven ruler, even though the royalty of Remena is human. Since the fierce demons were banished to Tuoni at the end of the demon wars fought a thousand years ago, Remena has lived in peace… but the stirrings of danger loom on the horizon.

Moorna is a 21-year-old half-blood whose life as an escort to the capital’s aristocracy is harrowing. She wants to pay off her escort debt as quickly as possible and return home with her friend Malkra to live a life free from discrimination. When Moorna accidentally stumbles upon the annoyingly handsome fae, Caidas, she is torn from all that is familiar and safe, and quickly learns that nothing is as it seems.

Download materials for DAUGHTER OF TWO BLOODS here!