Maria Peura
Maria Peura (b. 1970) is a prize-winning author and dramaturge whose latest novel Under the Water (Vedenaliset) is overflowing with sea winds, the storms of inner life, and the powerful presence of nature. Peura’s earlier work, At the Edge of Light (Valon reunalla), received great reviews both in Finland and in the UK, where it was published in 2007.
Maria Peura had her first novel Your Love Is Infinite (On rakkautes ääretön) published in 2001. It was nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Prize and received the Olvi Foundation Award, the Young Aleksis Award, and the Good Deed for Children Award. She has also published a collection of poetry for children.
Written by Maria Peura
Under the Water
Maria Peura’s third novel Under the Water is a powerful story of a girl who grows up with her parents on an isolated island in Finnish Lapland.
When she moves to a university town to study German language and literature, she is unable to adapt to her new surroundings, with even escalators provoking fear and wonder in her. The girl doesn’t know her limits at all, nor does she know how to behave. She is an untamed child of nature in the wrong environment. The girl nevertheless manages to find some friends among the immigrant community. Peura’s sprawling novel is overflowing with sea winds, the storms of inner life, and the powerful presence of nature.
Written by Maria Peura
At the Edge of Light
Rights sold: English (UK)
At the Edge of Light is a suffocating story of a true-life Romeo and a Juliet born somewhere in the far north, in a world of permafrost and insufferable people.
The novel is set in a close village community and tells the story of a girl and the boy she loves. Burning passion threatens to consume the lovers, and other people are a source of pain, but there is also room for absurd, ad-hoc humour. Peura describes her characters beautifully, heartbreakingly and with great honesty. Readers fear for them, and hope that the passion and curiosity that these young lovers struggle so vainly to conceal will not completely destroy them.
Written by Maria Peura
Your Love Is Infinite
A shocking yet bright work about a harsh subject.
Your Love Is Infinite tells about 6-year-old Saara, who has been taken to her grandparents’ house for the summer because her parents aren’t able to care for her. Grandpa is the only adult Saara believes loves her, but it is precisely his violent love that drives Saara into a world of fantasy and guilt. Saara longs for her mother, but she isn’t able to help, and Saara is left to her grandfather’s mercy.
Without blaming anyone, Peura weaves a taut, beautiful, powerful tale about a difficult subject: incest. She writes about children’s trust and dependence, and how they manage to survive.
Shortlisted for the Finlandia Prize in 2001
Praise:
“The impressive paradox of Peura’s work is that the novel is good and beautiful even though it deals with what is evil and ugly.” – Finlandia Prize Committee
Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency Oy Ltd.
info(at)ahlbackagency.com | +358 400 512 101 | www.ahlbackagency.com | Korkeavuorenkatu 37, FI-00130 Helsinki, Finland
