Johanna Sinisalo
A Unique Perspective to Contemporary Fiction
Johanna Sinisalo is without doubt one of Finland’s most internationally successful authors. Her first novel, Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (Not Before Sundown, Tammi 2000), was awarded the Finlandia Prize for literature and the James Tiptree Jr Award in 2004.
Sinisalo’s novel Lasisilmä (The Glass Eye, Teos 2006) has been published in German by Tropen. Her novel, Linnunaivot (Birdbrain, Teos 2008), was a great success. It has been published in French by Actes Sud and in English by Peter Owen Publishers to brilliant reviews. The Guardian newspaper and Publisher’s Weekly both lifted it to their recommendations lists, while in France the book was nominated for the Prix Escapades 2012. Birdbrain has been published in Norway, too.
In 2005 Sinisalo edited an anthology, The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, for the English publisher Dedalus. In addition to numerous other awards, her short story Baby Doll was shortlisted for the prestigious Nebula Award in 2009.
Translation rights to Sinisalo’s books have been sold to the following languages: English, French, German, Swedish, Japanese, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Albanian, Czech, Polish, Portuguese, Bulgarian and Norwegian.
Read more about Johanna Sinisalo at:
Written by Johanna Sinisalo
Hidden Powers
Hidden Powers – A Guide to Hiking Trails Both Dark and Bright comprises one novelette and half a dozen other short stories, all inspired by hiking. Sinisalo pushes the boundaries of realism in her stories about humans’ relationship to nature.
The fictional stories are accompanied with nonfictional anecdotes about Sinisalo’s own hiking experiences and a section of practical tips for planning a trek.
Written by Johanna Sinisalo
The Blood of Angels
Rights sold: English (World), French
An electrifying study of a future that could be reality tomorrow, and a chilling commentary on the great ethical question of our day: How should we treat nature and animals?
Albert Einstein is claimed to have said that if bees disappear from the earth, mankind has four years left to live. When mass bee-vanishings of unprecedented scope and devastation hit the United States, Orvo, a beekeeper, knows all too well where it will lead. And one day, when Orvo goes to check on his hives, he is forced to witness something he wishes he had never lived to see. The queen is dead. The epidemic has spread to Europe. The world is coming to an end.
The light of Orvo’s life is his son, Eero, whose secret animal activist existence Orvo discovers far too late. Eero’s activities as a defender of animal rights and an ardent opponent of Orvo’s inherited way of life propel the family into irreversible, gutwrenching conflict. Orvo takes a desperate step onto a path where only he and the bees know the way… This novel is a magical plunge into the myth of death and immortality, a tale of human blindness in the face of overwhelming choices and inevitabilities.
“The queen is dead. The bees are gone. Thus, the world is about to end. But if you follow the bees, there are doors in the air. And a desperate man is ready to go through one.” – from Johanna Sinisalo’s ‘The Blood of Angels’
Written by Johanna Sinisalo | Illustrated by Miisa Lopperi
The Land of Mobius
Rights sold: Danish
A Thrilling Adventure for Children!
Pi is eight years old, and she’s had a rotten summer vacation so far. Her best friend Sanna is moving away, and her special hideout in the woods has been smashed. Even her big sisters, who are verging on adolescence, have changed so much she hardly recognizes them anymore. But then Pi finds a strange object that looks like a bracelet among the trash cans, and an even stranger creature: Schrödinger’s Cat, who according to its own words both exists and does not exist at the same time…
Schrödinger’s Cat leads Pi into a thrilling parallel world, the existence of which is threatened by a mystical danger. As it turns out, Pi is the one who can save this world! But how can Pi, a little girl, meet such a challenge? Especially as it becomes evident that she might be just a figment of someone else’s imagination too? For a guide, Pi has Topo, a creature that was born wise and is getting dumber by the moment as it grows older. Pi encounters Hills That Walk and the noinutes, greedy little creatures that hold the will of the pack above all else.
The Land of Mobius is a wild, exciting, complex tale that will whisk children away on an adventure that will test their intelligence and imagination – and at the same time explore concepts like friendship, aging, tolerance, and how in all worlds everything affects everything else. Greed, laziness, and selfishness may not triumph after all, when confronted by Pi, a clever child who struggles to overcome her own limitations and has read her best loved books closely.
Johanna Sinisalo has done it again: surprised everyone. Who knew a trip to another reality could be quite this charming or fun?
Written by Johanna Sinisalo
Birdbrain
Rights sold: English (UK), French, Norwegian
Sinisalo’s Birdbrain is a skilful portrait of the unquenchable desire of Westerners for the pure and the primitive. A young Finnish couple, Jyrki and Heidi, go on the hiking trip of a lifetime in Australasia with Heart of Darkness as reading material. To Jyrki’s great surprise, his girlfriend Heidi demands to come with him, frightened by the idea of several months of solitude. The trip gradually turns into a tortuous thriller with belongings disappearing and, even more mysteriously, reappearing. The travellers come to be at the mercy of untamed nature Birdbrain describes Western people’s desperate longing for somewhere unspoilt and primitive with biting irony. At the same time, it reveals the dark side of this longing, showing it to be an insatiable desire to control, invade and destroy.. Birdbrain reveals the dark side of the explorer’s desire: the insatiable need to control, to invade and leave one’s mark on the landscape. But what happens when nature starts to fight back?
Praise:
“A sense of lurking horror that will leave you troubled for weeks”
– Sam Jordison, A Guardian Book of the Year, 2010
Nominated for the Prix Escapades 2012
Written by Johanna Sinisalo
The Glass Eye
The Glass-Eye is a ruthless psychological thriller which describes the dynamics of a close, creative work team. It describes how Taru finds herself in a world where the boundaries of fiction and facts blur and the prophecies begin to come true. In the world of Glass-Eye Taru learns that all relationships have hidden meanings and that nothing is necessarily what it seems. When Taru’s little sister Aija appears on the scene, the events take another turn and there is no turning back.
Johanna Sinisalo’s works hook the reader straight away. Her stories open doors to new worlds: they look at life from strange angles, they create suspense and make the reader laugh as well. Sinisalo’s books always offer sharp and open-minded analysis, and criticism of contemporary society. The Glass-Eye is not an exception. Is the television screen a window to another world or maybe it is a mirror? Does the glass-eye observe us from the corner of our living room instead of us observing it, just as George Orwell predicted?
Praise:
“How can a book be so complex and multi-levelled? Johanna Sinisalo’s The Glass-Eye changes its structure and colours like a chameleon.”
– Kati Hyttinen, MTV3/Helmi
Written by Johanna Sinisalo
The Handless Kings and Other Disturbing Tales
Johanna Sinisalo’s retrospective collection of short stories, The Handless Kings and Other Disturbing Tales, consists of both stories published earlier and completely new ones. The prize stories have been extolled by Finnish science fiction fans: three of the stories published in the collection have been awarded the Atorox prize. The novelette Baby Doll was shortlisted for the Nebula Award in 2009. The stories in the collection are set in places familiar to us and yet somehow amazingly different.
Written by Johanna Sinisalo
Not Before Sundown
Rights sold: English (UK), English (USA), Albanian, Bulgarian, Czech, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Slovenian
The international fantasy best-seller (published in America as Troll) and winner of the Finlandia Prize. Mikael, a young gay photographer, finds in the courtyard of his apartment block a small, man-like creature. It is a young troll, familiar from Scandinavian mythology: a demonic, wild beast. And it is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. Supposedly extinct, today it is regarded as a hairy, cuddly toy by Nordic children. Mikael gives the troll a name, Pessi, and takes him home and hides him. The first thing Mikael does is research everything he can about trolls from the internet, from folklore, nature journals and newspaper cuttings. What Mikael does not discover is that trolls exude pheromones that smell like a Calvin Klein aftershave and that this has a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those around him. Shooting an assignment for an ultra-hip brand of jeans, Mikael finds himself fast-tracked into a dangerous liaison with Martes, the sexually ambivalent art director of the advertising agency concerned, while a couple of his friends in turn fall in love with him because he carries the troll’s scent. What Mikael fails above all to learn, with tragic consequences, is that Pessi the troll is the interpreter of man’s darkest, most forbidden impulses.
Praises:
“A sharp, resonant, prickly book that exists on the slipstream of SF, fantasy, horror and gay fiction.”
– Neil Gaiman
“A punk version of The Hobbit”
– USA Today
“Chillingly seductive.”
– Independent, Best Reads of 2003
Finlandia prize 2000
James Tiptree, Jr. Award 2004
Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency Oy Ltd.
info(at)ahlbackagency.com | +358 400 512 101 | www.ahlbackagency.com | Korkeavuorenkatu 37, FI-00130 Helsinki, Finland
