Laura Lindstedt wins the Finlandia Prize for Oneiron!

We are beyond thrilled to announce that Laura Lindstedt has won the Finlandia Prize, the highest-profile honor bestowed upon a Finnish author, for Oneiron (Teos 2015). Awarded by the Finnish Book Foundation, the prize is worth 30,000 euros. We wish Laura our warmest congratulations!

“Selecting the winning work was, in the end, easy: its voice, imagery and world were so distinctive. After giving myself permission to throw myself into its unreal world, everything suddenly became very real…The author’s ingenious way of renewing the form and structure of the novel is downright striking, and she does so in an extremely reader-friendly manner! This is a story about stories that could be true.”
– Heikki Harma, Finlandia Prize juror, musician and journalist

Rights sold:

We are also very happy to announce that rights to Oneiron have been sold in three territories: in Hungary to Scolar, in Bulgaria to Faber, and in Lithuania to Versus Aureus, publisher of authors including Virginia Woolf and Sofi Oksanen.

About Oneiron:

Performance artist Shlomith from New York, chief accountant Polina from Moscow, heart transplant patient Rosa Imaculada from Brazil, upper-crust Nina of Marseilles who is expecting twins, cancer patient Wlbgis from the Netherlands, aspiring model Maimuna from Senegal and Austrian teenager Ulrike meet in an empty, blank space after their respective deaths. Time, as we understand it, has ceased to exist, and all bodily sensations are gradually disappearing.

Lindstedt plays with genres from essay to poetry, transitioning from humor to rage – while asking her reader to contemplate the question of death’s inevitability.

RIGHTS SOLD: ONEIRON
Original publisher: FINLAND, Teos
BULGARIA, Faber
HUNGARY, Scolar
LITHUANIA, Versus Aureus

RIGHTS SOLD: SCISSORS
Original publisher: FINLAND, Teos
DENMARK, Turbine

Prizes, Oneiron
Finlandia Prize 2015
Toisinkoinen Prize 2015

Prizes, Scissors:
Nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2007
Nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize 2007

Reading material: Oneiron
English sample
English synopsis
Finnish edition

Contact: info@ahlbackagency.com

 

 

 

About author


Laura Lindstedt

Laura Lindstedt (b. 1976) became a critical darling with her adoption-themed debut novel Scissors (Sakset, Teos 2007), which earned her a nomination for the Finlandia Prize, the country’s most prestigious literary honour. Lindstedt’s second novel Oneiron (Teos 2015), a work of speculative fiction that takes place in the mysterious moments that follow one’s death, earned her the coveted Finlandia Prize of 2015 and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2017. Lindstedt’s success has continued with My Friend Natalia (Teos 2019) which has earned critical acclaim and has been sold to 12 territories. Together with author Sinikka Vuola, she has authored 101 tapaa tappaa aviomies (101 Ways to Kill Your Husband, Siltala 2022) which has been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize of 2024.

She is currently completing her Ph.D. thesis on French author Nathalie Sarraute.

Bibliography


2019, Literary Fiction

My Friend Natalia

Laura Lindstedt


2015, Literary Fiction

Oneiron

Laura Lindstedt


2007, Literary Fiction

Scissors

Laura Lindstedt

Presenting Finlandia Prize nominee Souls by Markku Pääskynen!

9789513177959_frontcover_final.jpg;jsessionid=bidd56vipjrnnh5em5gd3vpcWe are proud to present critically celebrated author Markku Pääskynen’s novel Souls (Sielut, Tammi 2015), which has been nominated for the 2015 Finlandia Prize, the country’s highest literary honor. Praised for its lyrical prose and ability to depict a child’s point of view, Souls tells the story of a small-town Finnish family whose daughter unexpectedly disappears.

The winner of the Finlandia Prize will be announced on November 26th; Pääskynen is one of six authors nominated.

Contact the Agency for an English synopsis!

Praise for Souls:

“The novel is surprising and bold…although the mood is somber, the reader doesn’t feel crushed under a feeling of hopelessness and guilt…This mythical tale expands to deal with a larger question of humanity. Pääskynen’s storytelling is exceptionally skilled, and his language is spellbinding. Souls describes a world in which evil exists partially because adults want to believe in it.”
– Finlandia Prize jury, 2015

”The impressive core of Pääskynen’s novel is the idea that while we parents worry about the horrific things children have experienced, we inevitably view this horror through our own grown-up thinking.”
Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, Finland

Souls opens with the disappearance of a little girl and the resulting panic, but Pääskynen isn’t writing a thriller. He writes a strongly mythical novel in which the order of events is of secondary importance. Everything that is experienced is broadened through aphoristic realizations. The lucidity and brightness of his style is downright lyrical.”
Savon Sanomat newspaper, Finland

Souls examines the means literature has to reveal life’s secrets…Pääskynen skillfully describes the way in which everyday life veers off course and becomes strange, how things become meaningless and how, on the other hand, small details take on new meanings…The novel’s rhythms and repetitions grab the reader’s attention, and the story moves forward through short chapters in which the reader acutely feels the parents’ anguish and panic.”
Oma Aika magazine, Finland

Prizes:
Nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2006, 2015
Nominated for the Kalevi Jäntti Prize 2006
Nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize 2002
Nominated for the Savonia Prize 2002, 2005

RIGHTS SOLD:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi

Reading material:
English synopsis
Finnish edition

Contact: info@ahlbackagency.com