Super Guinea Flies to India, by Paula Noronen

Supermarsu lentää Intiaan, by Paula Noronen, Gummerus, 2007

Foreign Rights: Stilton Literary Agency

Written in the form of a diary, Paula Noronen’s first book in the popular Super Guinea series is a delightful mix of fantasy and realism, where magical things happen in an ordinary 11-year-old’s life, and common goodness triumphs over run-of-the-mill meanness. I love the funny, no-nonsense tone that the hero Emilia uses to tell her tall tales, and the book’s message of kindness.

    Simo is so puny that one time he was late to school because the wind picked him up and flung him down the street. He was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus when a great big gust of wind swept him up into the air and flew him all the way to the edge of town. Luckily the police caught him just before he was about to slam into an IKEA store. The IKEA employees were sitting having their lunch when they saw Simo flying toward the window. A lot of meatballs went down the wrong pipe, I’ll bet. But the police grabbed hold of his legs at the last minute so he didn’t crash through the window. When they got to the police station they offered him a sweetroll and some juice and he even got to look at the jail cells. Ever since then Simo wears little leg weights that the police gave him so that the wind won’t carry him off again.

Nominated for the 2007 Finlandia Junior Prize

From the Finlandia Junior Prize committee:

“The book beckons the reader into a wild world of imagination, moving nimbly between reality and Emilia’s imaginary world, and is equally recognizable and genuine in both.”

Read a sample from Super Guinea Flies to India.

Red Nose Day, by Mikko Rimminen

Nenäpäivä, by Mikko Rimminen, Teos, 2010

Foreign rights: Stilton Literary Agency

The story of this prize-winning novel begins when a painfully shy, lonely woman responds to a flier advertising free houseplants, goes to the wrong apartment by mistake, then covers her error by pretending to be taking a door-to-door survey. She enjoys chatting with a stranger so much that she decides to do it again – and again. This book achieves the rare feat of combining characterizations that are deeply sad with a truly zany and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny plot.

I had to make up some excuse for intruding – it was too awkward to admit my mistake. So suddenly I found myself scribbling notes on the blank inside back cover of a pocket calendar and muttering something about a survey, research, marketing, and so on. And then I came to and saw Irja, who was standing behind me pouring more coffee, suddenly stop and look at me with a sort of curious but friendly grin that reached all the way to her eyes and I could feel my own face quickly turning red all the way to my forehead, and since I couldn’t think of any other expedient, I tried to fix my gaze on the decorative plate that was hanging above the range hood, which made me think it had to have been hung there where it would collect grease for the sole reason that that would make it necessary to clean the thing morning and night. When this did nothing to relieve the heat on my face, I quickly pointed out the window and shrieked: Hey! That kid is eating sand!

Winner of the Finlandia, Finland’s most prestigious literary prize.

Finlandia jury comments:

“Rimminen’s cityscape is dim and slushy, its hallways exuding isolation. Into this world the author brings his own over-the-top language and style, an inventiveness unmatched in Finnish literature. Best of all, at story’s end, along with the laughter and tears, the novel’s characters, battered by his world, arouse authentic fellow-feeling in the reader.”

Rights sold to Actes Sud, France; DTV, Germany; Turbine, Denmark; Text Publishers, Russia.

Read an excerpt from Red Nose Day.

The Garden, by Jyrki Vainonen

Puutarha, by Jyrki Vainonen

From the collection Lasin läpi (Through A Glass, Loki-Kirjat, 2007)

Foreign Rights: Elina Ahlback Literary Agency

A collection of stories that burrow their way into your mind and stay there for years, spanning genres from fantasy to horror to the surreal. War, dreams, addiction, gardening. One of my favorite writers.

From The Garden (Puutarha):

…We didn’t know what kind of fruit it was. We had combed diligently through plant and garden guides and pestered friends and relatives who knew something about gardening, but we hadn’t succeeded in figuring out what kind of bush it was. The shrub had been huddled next to the fence in a patch of lawn baked by the afternoon sun a year earlier when we bought the house, and its yard and garden. We hadn’t noticed the plant at the time, because it wasn’t noticeable, wasn’t particularly showy or attractive. It had dark-colored, smooth-barked branches as strong as your wrist and leaves as smooth as your fingers and as wide as your hand that flapped in the wind like thin sheets of metal.

Because of that sound, we named the plant the sheet-metal shrub. Later we started calling it the ball bush, or the blob.

In late spring, before the nodule appeared, the branch at the crown had been graced for a week with a white flower the size of a fist. It had attracted scores of honey bees and other nectar gatherers. Sometimes its petals were completely covered by insects jostling for the mouth of the flower, and we feared that the blossom wouldn’t bear the weight of the pollinators, that it would come loose and fall to the ground.

But it seemed to have been able to bear it, and when the flower finally withered, the peculiar pod grew in its place…

Read the whole story at Words Without Borders.

Books from Finland magazine on Jyrki Vainonen:

“Vainonen’s models are international rather than Finnish. He moves effortlessly between reality and fantasy in composing miniature prose masterpieces. He does not write in the flesh-and-blood manner of Kafka and company. He is closer to a storyteller such as Roald Dahl, that entertainer of intelligent surprises.”

The Border, by Riikka Pulkkinen

UPDATE: English translation to be published in 2012 by Scribe Publications

Raja, by Riikka Pulkkinen Gummerus, 2006

Foreign Rights: Otava Group

Intertwining plots, minutely observed and emotionally honest: a husband’s Alzheimer’s disease, a teacher’s response to a student crush, the world of adults seen through a little girl’s eyes.

“What the hell are you doing, planning a coffee party?” Anja says. “You don’t come home till the middle of the night, and now you’re going to make some coffee? Have a nice cup of coffee with your wife to end the day? Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Damn it,” he roars. “What’s your problem? I’m making coffee in my own kitchen.”

Anja feels like crying. Her question comes out wrapped around the first inevitable sob, sounding more forlorn than she intended: “Where have you been?”

He relents, approaches her. For the first time, Anja sees a lost look in his eyes that she hadn’t noticed in her anger. He strokes her hair with his fingers. His hands are shaking. He tries to smile, but his voice is squeezed to a narrow, frightened snort.

“I took a wrong turn.”

“What? Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t know. I got lost.”

He smiles an agonized smile, a pained grimace pierced with a certainty, and Anja suddenly wants to say something, anything, to make him stop smiling like that.

Winner of the The Kaarle Prize and the Laila Hirvisaari Prize

FILI Spotlight:

“Pulkkinen succeeds in stimulating both thought and emotion as she walks us through the school, the home, the university, the old people’s home. She has created an entire world and four people who, like each and every one of us, live in the here and now, never entirely sure that their choices were right or sensible. She proposes ­and aptly demonstrates that, with integrity, literature really can broaden the reader’s moral and emotional world.”

Also published in Dutch and Estonian. Rights sold to Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden.

Read a sample from The Border.

Marie, by Arne Nevanlinna

Marie, by Arne Nevanlinna

WSOY, 2008

A stream-of-consciousness rollercoaster, quick as thought and ripe with emotion, spanning the 20th-century-long life of an immigrant in Helsinki. The empathy and insight that the author has for his character is impressive, and very involving to read.

‘Guillaume, Guillaume, I think it’s coming, call a taxi.’ Through the dark night, it was frightening, although she had been through the same thing twice before. Everything will be fine Mrs Myhrborgh. Why did doctors always say that everything would be fine, when everything wouldn’t be fine? The doctor will come as soon as he gets off duty. At first there were several days of pain and blood – sorry for the mess, Miss – Is it daytime or nighttime now? Then worse pain and even more blood, and when she came to,  the room was filled with faces full of condolence – We did all we could but we weren’t able to save your little girl, there was no time to give her a name – Marie had thought about naming her Helena – oh, what a nice time they would have had together – and for a boy Lauri after Laurent – Victor was out of the question, because in Finland you couldn’t name anyone that – maybe Hans, or maybe not, you’re still young, in your best childbearing years, your whole life ahead of you, chin up, and Guillaume didn’t come until the room was empty, a longer workday than usual, thank you for the flowers, even though they smelled bad, and it was understandable that the hospital chapel was small, but why did it have to be so dreary? No windows to look out of, outside where there was life and hope, no altarpiece to look at when the hours lengthened, luckily the pasteur spoke briefly, in Finnish, although Guillaume claimed that he had specifically asked that the service be in Swedish, you’d think back then that they still could have easily found someone who spoke Swedish, and why didn’t they ask me, since I was, after all – how to put it? – the main character in the tragedy.

Winner of the 2009 Kiitos kirjasta medal from the Booksellers’ Association of Finland and the Finnish Library Association.

FILI Spotlight:

“Marie Myhrborgh was born in Strasbourg on the last day of the 19th century. A hundred years later she is living her last days in a Finnish nursing home. Her mind wanders, searching for a vanished time in the landscapes of her childhood and her later life in Finland, where she was brought by a hasty marriage, formed amid the clamor of the First World War.

In his novel Marie (WSOY, 2008) Arne Nevanlinna follows his protagonist’s associations and reminiscences, creating comic and ironic, as well as tragic parallels between the eras and the cultures that it describes.”

Read an extended sample from Marie

Excerpt first published in Books from Finland magazine, Volume 2, 2008.

Rescue, by Raija Siekkinen

Vapahdus, by Raija Siekkinen

from the collection Metallin maku (A Taste of Metal, Otava Publishing, 1993)

A delicate and telling study of motivations and manipulations, from a brilliant collection by a master of the short story.

Cracks appear, of course, at the place where people are most connected. He had so often thought that people were similar to some birds in this respect: by trying to fix attention in another direction they revealed that somewhere nearby was a nest. He remembered how his mother would, with clumsy directness, offer him money to see a movie or suggest that he pay a visit to the family’s old aunts, who might someday leave him an inheritance. He would refuse. Sometimes he’d go, but return early; the movie he’d wanted to see had already left town, the aunts weren’t at home. He remembered his parents’ expressions. But they did love him. Yes, a man and a woman, a woman and a man. It was an obvious thing, although he himself had never felt it.

Transcript magazine on Raija Siekkinen:

“The troubling quality, of course, is universality, conveyed astonishingly, by Siekkinen not so much through inscription in a particular setting but through pitch-perfect delivery of the music of the heart.”

Read the entire story in World Literature Today.

Baby Jane, by Sofi Oksanen

Baby Jane, by Sofi Oksanen

WSOY 2005

Foreign Rights: Salomonsson Agency

This lyrical novel is a sad portrait of mental illness and the helplessness it can engender, contained in a story of two young women in love.

I did the same thing every morning at Joonatan’s house. Every day was like the next from the time I first met him. And every evening. Every night I watched Joonatan’s back. I liked it when he put his arm around me first, but once he had fallen asleep he would always turn away toward the other side of the bed, turn his back to me. And I never woke up so that I opened my eyes at the same time that he did and found myself looking right into his eyes. That never happened, because he never slept facing me.

Lapin kansa:

“A solidly crafted novel with a contagious drive that urges the reader forward. The novel deals with themes that, even if they are not taboo – what is in today’s reality? – are seldom discussed in the way that this novel discusses them; without exclamation points, subtly and therefore also compellingly.”

Also published in Estonian and Swedish.

Read an extended sample from Baby Jane in Words Without Borders magazine

Last Messages, by Hannu Luntiala

Viimeiset viestit, by Hannu Luntiala

Tammi Publishing, 2007

Foreign Rights: Elina Ahlback Literary Agency

This unusual and delightful book is the first text message novel ever published, the story of a man on the run from the law who wants to commit one great act of goodness before he dies. The uniquely concise style reads like both poetry and puzzle. The text message form seems to recreate the fractured quality of relationships in our digital culture, and lends itself to suspenseful pacing and telling silences.

 To: Heidi Sent: 11:34:50
 Not many days left, Trip in a week. Hungry for jazz at Sture’s: Ekman & Co.  Shall we meet there, then go to your place?
 From: +31 56 356 707 Sent: 12:33:58
Hi Teemu! All  arranged, documents and the rest as promised. If you 
have any problems, contact me. Ron.  To: +31 56 356 707 Sent: 13:12:10
 Hi Ron. Thanks! All including the passports and mobile phone? Coming there,  as you know, on May 16. Teemu
 From: Heidi Sent: 14:45:08
No more bars on weekdays. Work is suffering. See you Friday. I’m home already. Quick nap. 
 To: Heidi Sent: 15:13:13  Glad you understand. Gotta get my fill of Sture’s and Rytmihäiriö so I can 
 live without them for a couple of months. Though they do have jazz in Malaga.
 From: +31 56 356 707 Sent: 18:28:44
Yes with Dutch name, Ruud Keljkamp. See you in Amsterdam. Are you coming by train, bus or plane?  To: +31 56 356 707 Sent: 18:31:35
 Please no names in our text messages. Slow train from Copenhagen. Don’t like fast airplanes nowadays. See you in May, Teemu

Foreign Policy magazine:

“In a very modern twist on the epistolary novel, Hannu Luntiala, a Helsinki-based civil servant, in his second book, has produced the world’s first novel composed entirely of text messages…

Though the plot is intriguing, the medium in which it’s written and the questions that are raised through writing it in this format are far more so. The underlying theme of the ephemeral quality of a message, and a life, comes through loud and clear. The impact one has on the world is short and fleeting, and not many of us have the chance to make our mark.”

Also published in Croatian, Estonian, Hungarian, Russian, and Slovenian.

Read an extended sample from Last Messages

Cut! by Hanna Marjut Marttila

Filmi Poikki! by Hanna Marjut Marttila

Otava Publishing, 2007

An intelligent, funny novel that’s deadly earnest at its core. 15-year-old Thursday’s sister Tarina is pregnant again, his parents haven’t given up drinking as they promised the social worker they would, and Thursday wonders if he can continue to keep his troubled family together and his sister out of jail. Thursday has a voice that’s quirky and super fast, and a tenacious optimism and self-awareness as an “at-risk youth” that will nearly break your heart.

People always think that in a nocturnal family like mine, where everyday functioning is usually non-existent, not one of the idiots in the family could study film theory, or any theory, basically, because every member of that kind of family is now and forever a worthless loser.

Preconceived notions like that generally make me really annoyed and non-good-natured.

And it doesn’t matter to me that these preconceived notions might be based on some statistical facts, because I think that it’s important to make room for other kinds of ideas.

I don’t mean that I don’t believe in statistical facts. It’s just that sometimes there might be a teeny tiny possibility that things could go a different way than the statistical facts predict, and you’ve got to understand that you should make room for this teeny tiny possibility.

Parnasso:

“Hanna Marjut Marttila’s Cut! displays an original, moving, credible, and impressive literary gift. It is not merely that Marttila’s everyday drudgery is repeatedly switched for a fantasy dimension that criss-crosses and supports it and lifts the dead weight off the narrative; the reader is also carried aloft by a stunningly multifaceted narrator-voice. It is simultaneously fantastical and totally credible, sarcastic and sensitive, mischievous and deadly serious. It’s an authentic voice, the real deal. And as such it just has to be believed.”

Also published in Danish, French, Hungarian, and Serbian.

Read a sample chapter from Cut!

Murder Dance, by Matti Remes

Tappotanssi, by Matti Remes

Tammi Publishing, 2003

Foreign Rights: Elina Ahlback Literary Agency

The first in Matti Remes’ popular Ruben Waara series, this is a detective novel in classic whodunit style, with a touch of extra creepiness. The vivid setting is a picturesque Finnish seaside town that’s hiding some sordid goings-on.

He knew he was dying. The damp had already penetrated his thin clothes hours ago. Liquor, lack of sleep, and the blows to his head had dulled his senses. He continued to wait in vain for the salvation of nothingness, a place that he wouldn’t have to wake up from.

“Remes’ crime novels take place in Hanko and his storytelling reminds one of Mankell’s and Nesser’s portrayal of a city. Characters are common, everyday people; problems and motives are well justified and human. Remes’ writing ability can be seen in small, quiet moments. He describes these in a way that is rare in Finnish crime novels.” – Alueuutiset

Free E-book

Sample translations from two other books in the series, A Few Square Meters (Vain muutaman neliön tähden, Tammi, 2007) and Icelandic Embrace (Islantilainen syli, Tammi, 2006) are also available on the author’s website.

The Faraway Island, by Toivo Pekkanen

Kaukainen saari, by Toivo Pekkanen

From the collection Elämän ja kuoleman pidot (The Feast of Life and Death, WSOY, 1945)

An indelible fable by an iconic Depression-Era social realist. Vivid, stark, and poetic.

For as long as they could remember, Hannes and Pekka had felt an immense fascination for the lonely little island out in the open sea, clearly visible from the shore at home. Thickly overgrown with unusually tall pines, the island was like a wondrous bouquet in a great vase of sea.

Books and Writers:

Finnish working class writer and master of the social epic… Pekkanen became the first Finnish author whose dispassionate novels were read on both sides of the class barrier.

Read The Faraway Island

Translation first published in Books from Finland magazine, Volume 1, 2007.

Where is the Light From? by Marjo Niemi

Miten niin valo, by Marjo Niemi

Teos Publishing, 2008

A funny, unvarnished story of the aftermath of personal upheaval in the middle-class suburbs. Niemi’s writing has an idiosyncratic rhythm chock full of engaging internal narrative and hilariously, sometimes painfully frank detail.

“How may I help you?” a male doctor asks. In the corner of the room sits a self-conscious panel made up of three pale young people. The doctor notices Anni’s gaze, and rushes into the gap.

“I hope you don’t mind. These are undergrads.”

The undergrads look like they want to disappear among the equipment.

“I’d like a test for herpes, and other diseases,” Anni says, not bothered by the flock of undergrads. Nothing is sacred anymore.

“You’ve checked off every possible item here,” the doctor says, glancing at the form she filled out. “Some of these illnesses are quite rare if you haven’t been abroad.”

“They’re all possibilities. I don’t know where my husband’s been or who he’s been f**king – it might have been anyone or anywhere at all,” Anni says.

The doctor’s not surprised, he just looks sympathetic and asks her to undress.

Publisher’s review:

“Niemi’s second novel, Where Is the Light From?, is a tale of three women whose fates are intertwined. It is winter, January, and this is where the story starts, here where something ends and something new begins. Where Is the Light From? is a wild, cinematic story about waking into new circumstances from a long, deadening sleep – a false marriage, unrequited love, the self-imposed pressure to perform. it is a furious, honest novel that stays with the reader, a novel whose language is enchantingly artistic, revealing all.”

Read a sample chapter from Where is the Light From?