Tangled Roots

Maria Turtschaninoff

Original title: Arvejord

Author: Maria Turtschaninoff

Published: 2022

Publisher: FINLAND: Förlaget (orig.)

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 371

Reading material:

Swedish manuscript

Finnish translation

English edition

Tangled Roots (aka Inherited Land) is an episodic work of literary fiction depicting human relationships with nature across generations, following in the tradition of family sagas like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

The roots of people and forest are intertwined in the depths of the earth.

An old soldier carves a croft out of the Finnish forest and calls it home, but try as he might to tame the land, its wild magic endures. For centuries his descendants will work the farm, through days of plenty and famine, love and war, their fates entangled with the rhythms of the ancient wilderness, where mysterious shapes flit between the trees and danger lurks in the treacherous fen…

Like dragonflies darting over the marsh, their lives glimmer briefly and then are gone: a young girl entranced by the forest folk, a faithless fiancé who meets his match beneath the age-old branches, a farmhand with a strange obsession…

What endures is the wild, and the certainty that wherever we put down roots, the land will grow roots in us too.

I couldn’t be more firmly convinced that TANGLED ROOTS and Atlas Contact would form a match made in heaven. It is also the rare kind of book that prompts utter love at first sight for me personally: formally and stylistically inventive without making any concessions to storytelling; a compelling, episodically structured book that challenges the reader to connect some of the dots herself; a book that addresses an urgent subject for our times – how we humans treat the natural world that has been entrusted to us – without being heavy-handed about it; and most importantly: a book that zooms in on real characters of flesh and blood and gets the reader invested in their fates in just a few strokes of the pen. It is an amazing achievement from a writer with a brilliant future ahead of her.

– Jessica Nash, Publisher, Atlas Contact, Netherlands

Download reading materials

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Förlaget (orig. Finland-Swedish), Tammi (Finnish), SWEDEN: Förlaget
AZERBAIJAN: Alatoran
BULGARIA: Izida
CHINA: Rentian Ulus
CROATIA: HENA COM
CZECHIA: ARGO
DENMARK: Alpha Forlag
ESTONIA: Rahvat Raamat
FRANCE: Éditions Paulsen
GERMANY: Rowohlt
HUNGARY: L’Harmattan
ISRAEL: Hakibbutz Hameuchad – Sifriat Poalim Publishing House
ITALY: Bompiani
NETHERLANDS: Uitgeverij Atlas Contact
NORWAY: Bonnier Norsk Forlag
POLAND: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie
ROMANIA: Editura Univers
TURKEY: Timas
UKRAINE: Old Lion Publishing House
WORLD ENGLISH: Pushkin Press

Foreign covers

About author

Maria Turtschaninoff

Maria Turtschaninoff is known for crafting lyrical, historically inspired fantasy stories starring strong female protagonists. In addition to J.R.R. Tolkien, she counts Philip Pullman, Ursula K. Le Guin and C.S. Lewis among her favorite authors. She is a two-time winner of the Society of Swedish Literature Prize, winner of the Swedish YLE Literature Prize, winner of the Thank You for the Book Award, a nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2020-2024), and winner of the 2014 Finlandia Junior Prize. In 2024, Maria Turtschaninoff won the Eeva Joenpelto Literary Prize (10,000 euro award) for her literary masterpiece Tangled Roots.

Her Red Abbey Chronicles YA trilogy has been sold into 30 languages, while her first adult novel Tangled Roots has been sold to 23 territories. Maria has a Master of Arts in human ecology and works full-time as a writer.

Bibliography


2024, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Maria Turtschaninoff

The Manticore


2022, Literary Fiction

Maria Turtschaninoff

Tangled Roots


2018, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Maria Turtschaninoff

Maresi: Red Mantle


2016, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Maria Turtschaninoff

Naondel


2014, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Maria Turtschaninoff

Maresi