North American rights to Jyrki Vainonen’s The Explorer & Other Stories sold!

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Jyrki VainonenWe are happy to announce that the English edition of The Explorer & Other Stories by award-winning Finnish author Jyrki Vainonen will be published in the US in late October 2013 by Cheeky Frawg Books.

“One of Finland’s best short story writers, Vainonen writes in a fantastical mode with an underlying hint of the macabre or disturbing.” – Jeff VanderMeer, Cheeky Frawg Books; source: http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/

The Explorer & Other Stories contains short stories from Jyrki Vainonen’s three collections and is translated by Juha Tupasela and Anna Volmari. Seven wonderful stories are introduced to the reader: The Explorer (Tutkimusmatkailija), Blueberries (Mustikoita), The Refrigerator (Kaappi), The Garden (Puutarha), The Boat (Vene), The Aquarium (Akvaario) and The Library (Kirjasto).

Jyrki Vainonen is an award-winning Finnish author who is renowned for his Finnish translations of the works of Seamus Heaney, Jonathan Swift and William Shakespeare. He has lived in Ireland and wrote his licentiate thesis on Swift’s Irish pamphlets. In 1999 Jyrki Vainonen’s first collection of short stories was awarded the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize.

Other works by Jyrki Vainonen include The Towers (Tornit, Tammi 2009) which is a unique story of death, revenge and atonement. The Towers is a perceptive and psychologically charged story, mixed with the elements of fantasy, erotica and horror. Jyrki Vainonen’s title At Swift’s Doors (Swiftin ovella, Tammi 2011) is a highly inventive novel, a dramatic tale of ill fate and a brave fight against injustice. The drama unfolds in part in a fictitious Finnish setting, in part in Ireland in the 18th century. The protagonist of the novel is Jonathan Swift.

Please ask the Agency for reading materials to Jyrki Vainonen’s works!

About author


Jyrki Vainonen

Jyrki Vainonen (1963) is an award-winning Finnish author who is renowned for his Finnish translations of the works of Seamus Heaney, Jonathan Swift and William Shakespeare. His debut work, collection of short stories (Tutkimusmatkailija ja muita tarinoita, Loki-kirjat 1999 ) Vainonen received the Helsingin Sanomat Debut Book of the Year Award in 1999. Vainonen has lived in Ireland and wrote his licentiate thesis on Jonathan Swift’s Irish pamphlets.

“Vainonen, an award winner in his native Finland, debuts in English with seven selections from three of his previous collections, introduced by Finnish fantasy powerhouse Johanna Sinisalo. Opening with the absurd—a husband vanishes on an ill-fated expedition into his unfaithful wife’s thigh in “The Explorer”—the book then delves into questions of identity (“Blueberries”) and transformation (“The Aquarium”). Sex is mutable (“The Pearl”) and comforting truths are revealed to be false, while faint suspicions prove terribly true (“The Refrigerator”). The author shows an easy comfort with the odd and disturbing, and sympathy even with his less sympathetic protagonists. The translators have done a masterful job of presenting his work with clarity. The one shortcoming of the collection is its brevity; at a scant hundred pages it seems too short to function as a proper introduction to the author. (Oct.)”

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