selected titles fiction autumn 2015

Contact: Leenastiina Kakko, Foreign Rights Manager • Mobile +358 40 7555527 • [email protected]

Uudenmaankatu 10, 00120 Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 19961, [email protected], otava.fi/oga OGA represents foreign rights for Otava Publishing Company Ltd and Like Publishing Ltd. 1

OGA RIGHTS CATALOGUE – SELECTED TITLES FICTIONAUTUMN 2015

FICTION 2-12KAI ERIK (KAJ KORKEA-AHO): THE EVIL BOOK

PASI PEKKOLA: THE COLOURS OF A DRAGON

TUA HARNO: BURNT LAND

RIIKKA ALA-HARJA: LIGHTER FLESH

ASKO SAHLBERG: IRINA’S DEATHS

ANTTI TUURI: THE UNSTOPPABLE

HEIDI KÖNGÄS: HERTTA

GRANTA 5: RUSSIA

CRIME FICTION 13-19KATI HIEKKAPELTO: ANNA FEKETE SERIES

REIJO MÄKI: THE VOLCANO

VIRPI HÄMEEN-ANTTILA: SUMMER OF SNAKES

MILLA OLLIKAINEN: AND THE MOUNTAIN TOOK

OUTI PAKKANEN: HEAT WAVE



Kai Erik (real name Kaj Korkea-aho, born 1983) is one of the most talented and distinguished Finland-Swedish writers of his generation. He is also a comedian and regularly performs on radio, TV and stage. He is a popular columnist and writes plays for both theatre and radio.

Kai Erik’s enigmatic novels defy clear categorisation. His works are an original combination of the thriller and horror genres. This is gripping, literary fiction with a strong and distinctive voice.

Despite subtle elements of the supernatural, the world of Kai Erik’s novels always rings true: the characters are relatable, the environ-ments recognisable. However, underneath the familiar surface is a vague, creeping feeling that something is horribly and permanently ‘off’.

In his novels, Kai Erik deals with the themes of growing up and coming-of-age, as well as the role friends and friendship play during those crucial years. His novels highlight the might of stories, books and literature. He also explores the damage that narrow-minded religious dogma can cause within the community.

In 2014 Kai Erik was selected as one of the 20 best young Finnish novelists presented in the Granta Finland anthology.

“I want the reader to feel that my novel is a mystery box; and while reading, I want them to be obsessed with the urge to find out what’s inside that box.” - Kai Erik

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Praise for Kai Erik:

Kai Erik is simply a very good storyteller, who knows how to weave his story effectively and who understands the significance of location and detail. He also has a clear mastery of both charac-terisation and dialogue. – ÅBO UNDERRÄTTELSER

“Kai Erik will soon conquer the world, you wait and see.” – MONIKA FAGERHOLM, FINLAND-SWEDISH NOVELIST

Kai Erik’s works:

The Evil Book (Onda boken) to be published by Schildts & Söder-ströms in Swedish and Otava in Finnish in August 2015.

The Grass Is Darker on the Other Side (Gräset är mörkare på andra sidan, 2012 Söderströms in Swedish and Teos in Finnish) Prize of The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland.

Keep Me Safe for I Am Small (Se till mig som liten är 2009, Söder-ströms in Swedish and Teos in Finnish) Honorary mention in Söderströms novel competition 2008.Prize of The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland.



APPROXIMATELY 300 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / AUGUST 2015, SCHILDTS & SÖDERSTRÖMS AND OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

AN EXCERPT IN ENGLISH IS AVAILABLE

The Evil BookOnda boken

THEMES: FORCE OF LITERATURE, MYSTERY, UNIVERSITY LIFE

If you read this book, you will end up in hell.

Evil forces take over a university campus when a literature student stumbles across a calamitous manuscript from the 1920s

In the middle of a standard lecture, univeristy teacher Mickel Back-man gets a real chill: he is confronted by one of his students about a book that should never be spoken of out loud. A book that is also tangled with his own darkest secrets and an illicit romance.

How could Pasi Maars, a listless student, ever have heard of Lean-der Granlund? A deeply disturbed young poet from the 1920s who wrote only one collection of poetry which was never published. Instead of poetry, Granlund became famous for poisoning a newly-wed couple and a dozen of their guests at a high society wedding.

Pasi Maars is convinced that Professor Backman knows much more about Granlund and the manuscript than he will admit. And Pasi will not let go. For poems that went missing decades ago cannot possibly do anyone any harm – or can they?

The enigmatic manuscript from the past conceals powers that bring out the worst in human beings: envy, destructive pride, as well as a crushing sense of the meaninglessness of life.

I’d say: Stop the presses! We’re going with a new front page.... For those starving for literature, The Evil Book serves up a sublimely scrumptious dish of traditional mystery spiced with a relaxed, youthful sensibility.

Kai Erik’s key is a rollicking major, absolutely, even when slogging through the quagmires of cultural schizophrenia... Kai Erik is here to stay. I intend on reading everything he writes, purely for my own pleas-ure. - HELSINGIN SANOMAT

See more reviews on page 4

“This is a realistic horror story about the angst of student years, the power of literature and the increasing effects of society’s obsession with results and profit. It is an exciting story with an acute sense of intrigue, but more than that it is a story rooted in reality. Credibility is important for me.

It is a book about being left behind and about the painful realisation that while the law hands out punishment for bruises and a slandered honour, a broken heart is an injustice one is meant to accept and live with. It is also a dark story about revenge that hopefully readers will eagerly gobble up.” – Kai Erik

DANISH RIGHTS SOLD TO ART PEOPLE / PEOPLE’S PRESS, TO BE PUBLISHED IN AUTUMN 2016GERMAN RIGHTS SOLD TO BASTEI LÛBBEWORLD SPANISH RIGHTS SOLD TO PLAZA Y JANÉS / PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE. TO BE PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2016

“For those starving for literature, The Evil Book serves up a sublimely scrumptious dish of traditional mystery spiced with a relaxed, youthful sensibility.” - Helsingin Sanomat



Pasi Pekkola(born 1981) is a journalist, former professional basketball player and businessman who worked as a CEO in China for three years, heading the subsidiary of a Finnish company. He has a Master’s degree in Political Science. Currently he is a full-time writer and novelist.

Pekkola’s writing reaches deep underneath the skin of its char-acters whose thoughts, feelings, actions and fates become vital to the reader: it feels natural to fall in love, get disappointed, grieve and rejoice with them. Pekkola is not unnecessarily afraid of strong emotions nor big scales, but he is also a master at interpreting an individual’s emotions and conditions. His prose is gripping, intense and story-driven, his language full of beautiful metaphors.

Pekkola’s first novel The Dream-Snatcher (2013) was set in the world of sports. It was shortlisted for the Helsingin Sanomat literature prize for the best first novel of the year.

Pekkola’s second novel The Coulours of A Dragon (2015) is a story of international scope. It reaches from the Chinese countryside in the 1960’s to the silent Helsinki of the 1980’s and to the colourful and pulsating Shanghai of today.

”As a writer, I see myself before all as a storyteller, but as one who does not like compromises, who is al-ways looking for the perfect combination of story and language, the beautiful balance of form and content. I’m not afraid of big stories, they tend to squeeze the best out of me.” – Pasi Pekkola

Pasi Pekkola’s literary works and prizes:

The Colours of a Dragon was published in August 2015 by Otava.

The Dream Snatcher (2013) was shortlisted for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize competition for best debut novel of the year.

Praise for The Colours of A Dragon:

A leap into an international setting... Pasi Pekkola’s second book pulls itself right up into the ranks of the world-class novel... The novel relies heavily on epic ingredients and memorable scenes: the rusticity of Chinese vil-lages, the neon-light bustle of Shang-hai and the flat greyness of Finland. – THE NEWSPAPER ETELÄ-SUOMEN SANOMAT

The Colours of the Dragon conjures up a brutal, poetic and profoundly human web of people caught in the clutches of their circumstances... We’ll be just fine as long as gifted new lodestars like Pasi Pekkola emerge to light up in our literary firmament. - THE BLOG KIRJASTA KIRJAAN

A world-class read. – TIMO TAKOVAARA, BOOKSELLER

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“The Colours of the Dragon is a leap into an international setting... Pasi Pekkola’s second book pulls itself right up into the ranks of the world-class novel. ” – Etelä-Suomen Sanomat



459 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / AUGUST 2015, OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY AN EXCERPT IN ENGLISH IS AVAILABLE

The Colours of a DragonLohikäärmeen värit

THEMES: CHINA, BETRAYAL , MISSING MOTHER, PASSION

“As a child, I learned one can lose a person just like a thing, like a set of keys or one of your socks. Just like that. One second they’re there, and the next they’re gone.”Kimi was just a baby when his mother left, vanishing into her na-tive land of China. Now, on the cusp of his thirtieth birthday, Kimi is a top broker in the fund industry in Helsinki. But his mother’s enigmatic disappearance won’t let him go. And so he accepts his father’s birthday present: a round-trip ticket to Shanghai.

When Xiaolong arrived in Finland in the 1980s as a young woman, she had chosen her new homeland in order to offer security for her unborn child. But building happiness on sensible decisions proved to be less straightforward than she had imagined. How do you live on in a foreign country when you’ve deceived not only those close to you, but also yourself?

The novel takes readers on a journey through Finland and China, two very different countries that both carry a silence of their own – and through the lives of ordinary Chinese people, and the devas-tating events of the 20th century. Romantic dreams shatter under tragic conditions, collapsing under the weight of raw survival instinct and the power of money.

An emotionally charged novel on the defining choices in life and their devastating consequences.

Pasi Pekkola enchants with his narrative cunning... Literature this fine helps us understand each other and ourselves. The history and circumstances from which our wicked deeds spring. Comparisons to William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice are not far-fetched. – THE BLOG KIRJASTA KIRJAAN, FROM THE MAGAZINE OMA AIKA

The book... manages to build depth. The nods towards world literature are deep. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby appears throughout as a symbol of both Western prosperity as well as love built on illusions. Styron’s Sophie’s Choice serves as another, tragic inter-text. It is through them that Pekkola builds up the story of Xiaolong – of Little Dragon, who is prepared to do anything in order to survive. Pekkola has a gift for making even infuriating characters sympathetic.– HELSINGIN SANOMAT



Tua Harno(born 1984) is a writer and scriptwriter living in Helsinki. Harno has an MA in drama from the Theatre Academy Helsinki and a law degree from the University of Helsinki.

Harno marched directly into the heart of the Finnish literary scene with her debut novel Those Who Stay (2013), a strong, lyrical, beautifully written work about roots, family and the songs of Leonard Cohen. She had entered the manuscript in a writing competition organised by Otava Publishing and stunned the jury with her technical skill and the force of her story.

Harno’s prose is characterised by confidence, graceful narration, delicate characterisation and powerfully charged atmosphere.

In her second novel, Burnt Land (2015), a pregnant woman in her thirties travels to Australia to seek balance and direction for her life.

Harno also wrote the screenplay for the musical film Let’s Be Free!, which premiered in August 2015.

“I alternate between writing scripts and novels, so I don’t get overwhelmed by the loneliness of writing long prose. I’m always looking for the perfect combination of beauty, humour and sadness.I used to dream of having an island where I could write. Now I hope to make space at the family dining table for my laptop.” – Tua Harno

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Praise for Tua Harno:

Those Who Stay is a big book about human brokenness. It has the essential ingredients: an engrossing story and it plunges deep below the surface, into the murky depths of the narrator’s mind.– TURUN SANOMAT

Tua Harno’s first novel Those Who Stay is an incredibly beautifully written story, which I could not stop reading. – LITERARY BLOG KIRJAINTEN VIRRASSA

Tua Harno’s screenplay probes the lives of contemporary thirty-year-olds with a deft, light touch. – NYT MAGAZINE ON THE SCREENPLAY FOR LET’S

BE FREE!

Tua Harno’s literary works and prizes:

Burnt Land to be published in September 2015 by Otava.

Those Who Stay (2013) was awarded an honourable mention in the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize competition for best debut novel of the year.

A manuscript version of the novel won the Pentti Saarikoski writing competition in 2012.



APPROXIMATELY 300 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / SEPTEMBER 2015 , OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

AN EXCERPT IN ENGLISH WILL BE AVAILABLE

Burnt LandOranssi maa

THEMES: PASSION, PREGNANCY, AUSTRALIA, SPIRITUAL QUEST

”Sanna was lost. She remembered her mother’s advice from blueberry-picking in the woods: Stay where you are and cry, and I’ll hear you.”A crazy decision turns Sanna’s life upside down. What makes a pregnant woman travel alone to the Australian outback and risk everything?Sanna’s life has been defined by safe choices: the local school of economics, the same boyfriend since high school, a home in a reputable neighbourhood of Helsinki. Until, in her thirties and pregnant, she travels to the ends of the earth: a remote Austral-ian mining town called Kalgoorlie.

Sanna is doing research for her master’s thesis on gender equal-ity amongst mine workers, but it is a spiritual quest that actually brings her to Australia. The mining town is run by rough-and-tumble men; the women either work at dingy pubs or push over-flowing shopping carts down the supermarket aisles.

In this bizarre, even menacing environment, Sanna meets her compatriot Martti, a miner with a restless history and equally restless soul. Sanna and Martti start an improbable yet passion-ate affair, but there is no room for love in either of their lives.

Sanna embarks on a trek across the desert in order to find the balance she so seeks. The trek has been planned by her spiritual guide, Ralda, an enigmatic woman acquainted with Aborigine culture.

In the desert, Sanna realizes she has made the biggest mistake of her life entrusting her own well-being and that of her unborn child to Ralda’s hands.

“When researching the novel, I stayed in the home of a retired miner in Australia. It’s actually quite rare for an outsider to be granted access to the mines. But I didn’t only visit the site during the day; I also slept a few nights in a bunkhouse for seasonal workers on mining company premises.

I was pregnant myself at the time. Never had I been so aware of being a woman and what that means.”

– Tua Harno



Riikka Ala-Harja (b. 1967) is an author and dramaturg whose oeuvre encompasses not only novels but short stories, children’s books, and comic book manuscripts. She has also penned plays, radio plays, and columns and partici-pated in various projects in the fine arts. Her previous novel Normandy was short-listed for Finlandia Fiction Prize in 2012.

Praise for Riikka Ala-Harja:

Lighter Flesh demonstrates once again Ala-Harja’s fine, even refined, sense of humor that does not confront but lies quietly, ironic and sarcastic.

– TURUN SANOMAT

Riikka Ala-Harja’s exceptional novel constricts and crushes – and delights with its insights (…) by all accounts up to international standards.”– HELSINGIN SANOMAT ON ALA-HARJA’S PREVIOUS NOVEL NORMANDY

Riikka Ala-Harja

Lighter FleshKevyt liha

THEMES: FEMINISM, FITNESS, THEATRE

Why are women still less visible than men?Saara is the lighting designer for a large theater. Her place is at the back of the hall. Her job is to illuminate characters that don’t exist.

For the play called “God’s Lover”, Saara lugs a stack of books about Michelangelo’s David home from the library, because an-other man with the most perfect body in the world is going to be on stage and need lighting: a shepherd who conquered someone bigger than himself.

Saara is divorced. The only man who has slept in the same bed with her since the divorce is her seven-year-old son. Saara hunts for gray hairs on her head and punishes her body at the gym. As she is leaving the gym, she bumps into a man she had dated 25 years earlier.

“A woman can swing a twenty kilo medicine ball and bench-press over 100 kilos, but a woman doesn’t choke another to death.

Women aren’t encouraged to do that. And women don’t have time for it, anyway, because they need to

make spaghetti for the kids and make sure they have gloves and warm underclothes and no lice. Women need to make sure the children get their vitamins and their sleep, and they need to wash the dishes so that the next day balanced meals can be eaten off those dishes. “

219 PAGES / AUGUST 2015, LIKE PUBLISHING AN EXCERPT IN ENGLISH WILL BE AVAILABLE

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Asko Sahlberg

Irina’s DeathsIrinan kuolemat

THEMES: WAR, CHILDREN, UNDYING HOPE

A short but probing novel about death and rebirth In winter 1944 Irina is sent out of bomb-damaged Helsinki to western Sweden as a war child. The blood-stained tragedy hangs over the journey. Adjusting to a new country and Swedish foster parents leads Irina out of the shadows of war and into the shad-ows of peace time and the private nightmare of a family weighed down by emotional wounds.

Irina’s Deaths is the story of people who are groping in the darkness for themselves and one another. It’s a girl’s coming of age story and a penetrating probe of life’s secret regions, an account of inborn persistence and man’s undying hope, a brilliant analysis of the impossibility of returning to the past, and a beauti-ful tale of death and rebirth.

Asko Sahlberg (born 1964) is a Finnish author who resides in the countryside near Gothen-burg. Sahlberg has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize three times (in 2001, 2004 and 2013), and once for the Nordic Council Literature Prize (2006).PE

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150 PAGES / SEPTEMBER 2015, LIKE PUBLISHINGAN EXCERPT IN ENGLISH WILL BE AVAILABLE

Praise for Asko Sahlberg:Irina’s Deaths is a short but powerful study of what remains to an individual when everything is taken away, even her own feelings…sometimes a surprise door opens in even the completest blackness. In place of lovely light and cooling waters it opens to a space where something is located that we recognize as life. – HELSINGIN SANOMAT

Nordic prose at its best - ILTA-SANOMAT ON SAHLBERG’S PREVIOUS NOVEL’S PREVIOUS NOVEL NIGHT SWALLOWS DAY



Antti Tuuri

The UnstoppablePitelemättömät

THEMES: ITALY, HUMOUR, RELATIONSHIPS

Some of us just cannot be restrained

This humorous tale about an unstoppable man takes place in today’s Italy.

A married Finnish couple has rented a villa for a year in a medieval town near Rome to focus on their writing. The couple’s peace-ful retreat is disrupted when a woman artist they know moves in on them with her friend. The two want to escape Villa Lante and Rome’s noise for a while.

It soon becomes evident that the women are actually fleeing Järvikanta, a man who is simply unstoppable and whose company always leads to problems. As his ex-wives, the women visiting their villa know this only too well. It soon becomes apparent to others, as well, and events take unexpected turns.

“Antti Tuuri is a virtuoso of story telling.” – Helsingin Sanomat

APPROXIMATELY 280 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / SEPTEMBER 2015, OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY


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N Antti Tuuri(b. 1944) is one of the most highly regarded Finnish writers of today. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages and he has has been awarded with both the Nordic Council’s Literary Award (1985) and the Finlandia Prize (1997).

Tuuri is a portrayer of the middle class, a behaviourist characterized by a precise style coloured by Ostrobothnian humour.



Heidi Köngäs (b. 1954) is a highly regarded Finnish film director and author. She has written six novels so far. Her works have been translated into German and Estonian. Her previous novel Dora, Dora (2012) received praising reviews and was shortlisted for Finlandia Fiction Prize.

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APPROXIMATELY 300 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

SEPTEMBER 2015 AN EXCERPT IN ENGLISH WILL BE AVAILABLE

Praise for Heidi Köngäs:

Soaring to become the author’s best work yet, Hertta is a powerful novel about how the political and personal merge and neither and no one is the better for it. In the power game of ideologies, love is a currency with no value. - HELSINGIN SANOMAT

Heidi Köngäs is a gifted portrayer of women’s emotional life and the most delicate of gestures. - MTV3.FI WEBSITE

Breathtaking story about commit-ment and loyalty. – AAMULEHTI ON KÖNGÄS’S PREVIOUS NOVEL DORA, DORA

Heidi Köngäs

HerttaHertta

THEMES: PASSION, POLITICAL CONVICTION, BETRAYAL

”I won’t be destroyed, however they try! I’ll never stop fighting!”A scintillating historical novel about love between two people fiercely committed to their belief

Hertta Kuusinen, the most famous figure of the Finnish Com-munist movement, is released from prison in the spring of 1939. She is 35 years old, hungry and full of determination. Her son Yuri stayed behind in Moscow. So did her youth.

Hertta meets handsome Yrjö Leino and falls head over heels for him. The love that hit like a bolt of lightning develops into a burn-ing political union.

During the Winter War, Hertta and Leino hide underground. Later, during the Continuation War, they land in preventive deten-tion.

The coming of peace means the dawn of the communist cou-ple’s heyday. Leino becomes a minister and Hertta, the country’s best known woman politician.

Hertta is willing to give her life for her beliefs, but how far will Leino go? Whose side is he on?



Granta5 RussiaEdited by Aleksi Pöyry

THEMES: EXPERIENCES OF AND IN RUSSIA

Russia displays its many faces Finnish and foreign writers address a topic that is very current – always so, in Finland, but now everywhere in the world.

The texts carry readers on friendship visits to the Soviet Union of the 1980s, introduce Russian-Estonian culture, delve into the Crimea Peninsula through Russian literature, and even transport readers to Sweden.

Finnish writers in the anthology include Venla Hiidensalo, Ville Hytönen, Sirpa Kähkönen, Markus Nummi, Ville Ropponen, Petri Tamminen, Tommi Uschanov and Katariina Vuorinen.

This literary periodical, founded at Cambridge University in 1889, has finally found its way to Finland. Granta 1: Food was published in August 2013.

Granta 3: Best of Young Finnish Novelists intro-duced twenty of the best Finnish writers born since 1974. The collection was translated into English to celebrate Finland’s role as the Guest of Honour at Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014.





CRIME FICTION 13-19KATI HIEKKAPELTO: ANNA FEKETE SERIES

REIJO MÄKI: THE VOLCANO

VIRPI HÄMEEN-ANTTILA: SUMMER OF SNAKES

MILLA OLLIKAINEN: AND THE MOUNTAIN TOOK

OUTI PAKKANEN: HEAT WAVE

OGA RIGHTS CATALOGUE – SELECTED TITLES FICTIONAUTUMN 2015



Kati Hiekkapelto

Anna Fekete SeriesTHE HUMMINGBIRDKolibri

THEMES: IMMIGRATION, MURDER, HONOUR VIOLENCE

A strong, sympathetic heroine has been born! This gripping start to a new detective series sends Anna Fekete to the icy latitudes of the Arctic and tackles burning issues of immigration Hungarian by ethnicity, Yugoslav by birth, one-time refugee Anna Fekete’s career as a detective begins in a northern Finnish coastal town. Although fully integrated into her new homeland, the young immigrant considers herself a stranger, perhaps most of all to herself. And being partnered with middle-aged Esko, who doesn’t bother hiding his xeno-phobic prejudices, doesn’t help.

Anna’s work as a criminal investigator barely gets off the ground before she is thrust into a case that has riveted the nation. A young woman has been killed on a running trail, and a pendant depicting an Aztec god has been found in her possession. Another murder soon follows. All signs point to a serial killer. But can Anna catch the Hum-mingbird before he – or she – strikes again?

Anna is also troubled by the fate of a Kurd girl, Bihar. Bihar contacts the police, fearing “honour violence”, but refuses to co-operate during question-ing. Since the girl will not speak, Anna must look elsewhere for evidence.

“Hiekkapelto’s brooding debut, a large-scale police procedural set in a small Finnish town, tilts heroically at such vexing ills as racial prejudice, alcoholism, and domestic abuse... promises tough and powerful crime fiction to come.”– Publishers Weekly, USA

381 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / 2013 / OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

TRANSLATION IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH AND IN GERMAN

THE SYNOPSIS OF THE SERIES IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH

PUBLISHED IN: DANISH (TURBINE) GERMAN (HEYNE/ RANDOM HOUSE) ENGLISH (ARCADIA BOOKS) ITALIAN (ATMOSPHERE LIBRI)

RIGHTS SOLD:

DUTCH (A. W. BRUNA) TO BE PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2016

HUNGARIAN (ATHENAEUM) TO BE PUBLISHED IN AUTUMN 2015

ICELAND (SKRUDDA) TO BE PUBLISHED IN MARCH 2016

“Hiekkapelto knows how to get into people’s skin.” - 45 min, mtv3, Finland“All fans of Scandi-crime will love this.” – Hörzu, Germany

Kati Hiekkapelto (b. 1970) is a special needs teacher by training. She lives on an old farm on the island of Hailuoto in Northern Finland with her children and a sizable menagerie.

Hiekkapelto has taught immigrants and lived in the Hungarian region of Serbia. She also sings in a punk duo called Bearded Woman.

www.katihiekkapelto.com

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THE DEFENCELESSSuojattomat

THEMES: IMMIGRATION, DRUGS, GANGS

With her immigrant roots, Anna Fekete encounters emotional pain spots in her own identity in her police work. Exactly who are defenceless, and in what ways?

An old man is run over by a car and dies. Investigating the case, Anna Fekete feels as if everything doesn’t quite fit together. The Hungarian au pair girl who was driving the car says that the old man was already lying in the road when she drove o ver him, and no footprints from the victim are found at the site of the accident. At the same time, Anna’s work partner Esko is investigating the activities of an immigrant gang that has landed in Finland. What part did the young man who received a deportation decision play in the death that is discov-ered in the raid on the drug house? Amid the increasingly dangerous police investigations Anna finds herself racked with homesickness.

DUSKTumma

THEMES: ROOTS, REFUGEES, FAMILY SECRETS, ROMANI PEOPLE

Anna returns to the Balkan village of her birth, where she begins investigating her father’s death decades earlier. Without warning, she is swept up in the refugee crisis thundering down on Europe.

Anna Fekete decides she will spend the summer relaxing in the region of her birth, in an ethnic Hungarian Serbian village. While celebrating the local wines, Anna’s purse is stolen. It doesn’t take long to find the thief – dead on the banks of the river. The local police are reluctant to conduct a proper investigation, so Anna takes matters into her own hands.

The trail of clues unexpectedly leads Anna to her own father’s unresolved death decades earlier. Meanwhile, Anna is caught up in the refugee crisis that is shaking Europe. The political conditions are unsettling the delicate balance in the region – how long will it take before it explodes?

301 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / 2014 / OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

TRANSLATION IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH AND IN GERMAN

PUBLISHED IN :

GERMANY (HEYNE/ RANDOM HOUSE)

WORLD ENGLISH (ORENDA BOOKS)

RIGHTS SOLD:

DANISH (TURBINE) TO BE PUBLISHED IN 2016

HUNGARIAN (ATHENAEUM) TO BE PUBLISHED IN 2016

ITALIAN (ATMOSPHERE LIBRI) TO BE PUBLISHED IN 2016

WORLD ENGLISH AUDIO RIGHTS (AUDIBLE) TO BE PUBLISHED IN AUTUMN 2015

“It’s a lot like reading Henning Mankell , when Senior Constable Anna Fekete works on several tricky cases in the icy-cold winter of Northern Finland while contemplating the hardness of life.” – Helsingin Sanomat, Finland

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:The Defenceless was chosen The Best Finnish Crime Novel in 2014 The Hummingbird was nominated for The 2015 Petrona Award in the UK (Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year)

APPROXIMATELY 300 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / 2016 / OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

RIGHTS SOLD:

GERMAN (HEYNE / RANDOM HOUSE)



Reijo Mäki (b. 1958) is a best-selling Finnish author, known escpecially for his dry humour and intriguing detective novels. Mäki published his first novel in 1985. Now, in 2015, he has almost 40 books to his credit; 26 of them feature the private eye Jussi Vares, also a well-known and well-loved movie character.

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APPROXIMATELY 445 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / JUNE 2015, OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY


Praise for Reijo Mäki :

Juicy characters with juicy tales. - LÄNSI-SUOMI

Full of action. It works. – SUOMEN KUVALEHTI MAGAZINE

Reijo Mäki has a keen ear. The way his characters speak feels real and genu-ine. - ETELÄ-SUOMEN SANOMAT

Reijo Mäki can even get Finnish men to read. Mäki’s incredibly clever language draws the reader in. – ILKKA

Reijo Mäki

The VolcanoTulivuori

JUSSI VARES SERIES

THEMES: MURDER, HUMOUR, THE CANARY ISLANDS

Jussi Vares heads for the tropics on booze-borne wings!An ex-girlfriend of Vares’ is murdered on the Canary Islands. Jussi flies south and finds himself on an all-inclusive trip to the dark heart of paradise, where everything, including life, is cheap.

Vares’ most personal gig to date takes him to misty mountain-sides and poolside patios.

This latest Vares adventure is a package deal of suspense and inappropriate humor. It’s as bracing as the day’s first sip of Long Island ice tea.

Two million books sold, and there’s no sign of Vares slowing down – Volcano is the toughest Vares novel to date!

More than 2 million Reijo Mäki’s books sold in Finland!“Reijo Mäki is like hot dogs on the grill - without him you might as well skip summer and just go straight to October.” - KAUPPALEHTI



Virpi Hämeen-Anttila

Summer of SnakesKäärmeitten kesä

KARL AXEL BJÖRK 2

THEMES: MURDER, EUGENICS, 1920’S

Razor-sharp Karl Axel Björk is after a fiendishly clever murderer who changes skins like a snake.

It’s summer 1921 and Karl Axel Björk is assigned to investigate an elderly woman’s death that the police have set aside as just a heart attack. When a second inexplicable death occurs, it begins to look as if the deceased were victims of a crafty poisoner.

At the same time a foreign policy scandal erupts in Finland. The government, the army and the civil guard organisation compete for authority with ever harsher tactics. Nor do Björk’s old enemies the Vala brothers take a rest, but rather attack him with unexpected weapons.

Gripping murder mysteries in 1920s Helsinki feature a charming dandy detective and bring to mind Agatha Christie.

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akko Virpi Hämeen-Anttila

(b. 1958) has previously published works of fiction, non-fiction and literary essays. The Night Has a Heart of Ice was her first foray into a new genre.

Her series of thrillers introduces the reader to the charming Karl Axel Björk, a loner and dandy, whose nocturnal life is filled with excitement and danger.

351 PAGES / 140 X 202 MM / JUNE 2015, OTAVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

AN EXCERPT IN ENGLISH WILL AVAILABLE

Praise for Karl Axel Björk Series:

The atmosphere of 1920s Helsinki shines through beautifully in Björk’s story, right down to the language. Virpi Hämeen-Anttila has researched the decade thoroughly and affectionately. – HELSINGIN SANOMAT

As a detective [Björk] is naturally unbeat-able, like a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Erast Fandor, hero of Boris Akunin’s books. – TURUN SANOMAT

An old-fashioned whodunit in the best of the tradition. – KIRJAVINKIT.FI

1920’s Helsinki comes to life in this enter-tainingly elegant thriller. – AGRICOLA, FINLAND’S HISTORY NETWORK



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Milla Ollikainen(born 1974) won the writing competition ‘Rikos kannattaa’ (‘Crime Pays’) by Like Publishing and The Finnish Whodunnit Society in 2012 with her first novel And the Ice Bled (2013).

APPROX. 250 PAGES/ SEPTEMBER 2015, LIKE PUBLISHING


Milla Ollikainen

And The Mountain TookPirunkuru

THEMES: THRILLER, MURDER, NORTHERN NOIR

The concluding volume of a crime trilogy set on the fells of Lapland and dripping with Nordic exoticismIn the small village of Äkäslompolo, people are celebrating a min-ing company that could bring with it hundreds of jobs. But not everyone reacts to the plan without reservation. Soon the body of a miner is found in the wilderness with a metal detector beside him. The death is officially labeled an accident until a second slain man is discovered at the backwoods hotel.

And The Mountain Took is the final part of a suspense trilogy set in Ylläs in Finnish Lapland.

Praise for Milla Ollikainen’s thrillers:

And the Ice Bled is a superbly written detective novel that hooks you in and is easy to approach. – TURUN SANOMAT

The trump card of And the Ice Bled is the control of the demanding composi-tion and the precise examination of emotions. – KESKISUOMALAINEN

The Lapland crime trilogy:

And The Ice Bled (2013)And The Water Called (2014)And The Mountain Took (2015)



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Outi Pakkanen (b. 1946) has been one of Finland’s top thriller writers since the 1970s. She is best known for her suspense novels set in Helsinki. Her works have been published in German and Czech.

Outi Pakkanen

Heat WaveHelle

ANNA LAINE SERIES

THEMES: MURDER, GOURMET, HELSINKI

In the sweltering Finnish summer, even Anna Laine’s feelings get fried.Water damage derails Anna Laine’s life. Always style-conscious Anna is forced to leave her attic apartment and move in with an old lady she knows, in a two room apartment that stinks of cat. She relieves her frustration by cooking. The situation also places dignified dachshund Justus far outside his comfort range.

But something strange is in the air of this Helsinki apartment building. It is finally revealed during the outdoor party that ends with the thunderstorm of the century.



Praise for Outi Pakkanen:

Outi Pakkanen is definitely in a class of her own in Finland! – ILTALEHTI

Pakkanen is a master of the densely atmospheric urban novel. – ILKKA

Pakkanen is keenly perceptive and a humorous, compelling storyteller. – KARJALAINEN

Pakkanen knows how to weave a good thriller. – HÄMEEN KANSA

selected titles fiction autumn 2015

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Transcript of selected titles fiction autumn 2015