Rights to Maria Turtschaninoff’s Maresi sold in Denmark

Newsletter_Maresi_Apr162014We are thrilled to announce that Turbine has acquired Danish rights to Maria Turtschaninoff’‘s Maresi (Schildts & Söderströms 20114), the first part of a planned trilogy entitled The Red Monastery Chronicles. Rights to the book were previously sold to Berghs in Sweden.

Set in a historically inspired world of magical realism, Turtschaninoff’s works have a distinctively female perspective with strong echoes of Tolkien. During her career she has been nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, among other honours. Maresi will be published both in Swedish (by Schildts & Söderströms in Finland and Berghs in Sweden) and in Finnish (Tammi) this autumn.

Maresi is set in the Red Monastery, located on a small, southern island, which is a refuge and haven for girls. One of them is Maresi, a 13-year-old with an appetite for learning and books, who fled there from famine and poverty four years ago. She is thoughtful and empathetic, caring for the smallest novices of the monastery and spending her time in the vast library in the House of Knowledge. The dangers of the outside world enter the island in the form of Jai, a girl with a dark past. She has escaped her home after seeing her father and uncle bury her sister alive for speaking to a young man. Soon her father and a crew of hired thugs arrive on the island in an attempt to bring Jai home, and Maresi is confronted with her worst fears: she can no longer she can no longer hide in books and words but must be the one who acts.

Praise:

“I don’t know another storyteller of this calibre. So original, so charged with power, and by such deceptively simple means […] She has the ability to wrench the reader whole-heartedly into the world of the story, and after waking up from the story the reader will have experienced something profound – purgation, catharsis, or something else altogether; something inexplicable and almost ‘sacred’ has happened to the reader, just as happens to the characters in Turtschaninoff’s stories.”
-Translator Marja Kyrö

“Turtschaninoff’s adaptability as a storyteller surprises and delights with each new book. She has a fantastic skill in creating breathtaking new worlds.”
Savon Sanomat newspaper

RIGHTS SOLD
DENMARK, Turbine
FINLAND, Tammi
SWEDEN, Berghs

Reading materials:
English sample and synopsis
Full Swedish text

Original publisher:
Finland, Schildts & Söderströms (Swedish)

For rights inquiries contact: info@ahlbackagency.com

About author


Maria Turtschaninoff

Maria Turtschaninoff is known for crafting lyrical, historically inspired fantasy stories starring strong female protagonists. In addition to J.R.R. Tolkien, she counts Philip Pullman, Ursula K. Le Guin and C.S. Lewis among her favorite authors. She is a two-time winner of the Society of Swedish Literature Prize, winner of the Swedish YLE Literature Prize, winner of the Thank You for the Book Award, a nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2020-2024), and winner of the 2014 Finlandia Junior Prize. In 2024, Maria Turtschaninoff won the Eeva Joenpelto Literary Prize (10,000 euro award) for her literary masterpiece Inherited Land.

Her Red Abbey Chronicles YA trilogy has been sold into 30 languages, while her first adult novel Inherited Land has been sold to 23 territories. Maria has a Master of Arts in human ecology and works full-time as a writer.

Bibliography


2024, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

The Manticore

Maria Turtschaninoff


2022, Literary Fiction

Inherited Land

Maria Turtschaninoff


2018, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Maresi: Red Mantle

Maria Turtschaninoff


2016, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Naondel

Maria Turtschaninoff


2014, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Maresi

Maria Turtschaninoff