3 new Fiction deals!

We are extremely happy to announce that Naklada Ljevak has acquired the Croatian rights for Johanna Sinisalo’s novel BLOOD OF ANGELS and Elina Hirvonen’s novel WHEN TIME RUNS OUT.

Finnish literature is conquering Croatia! Another prestigious publishing house in Croatia, Mala Zvona, has acquired the Croatian rights to Tiina Raevaara’s Runeberg Prize-winning novella collection I DON’T FEEL YOU BY MY SIDE. The deals were closed by Sten-Erik Tammemäe at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.

Naklada Ljevak praised both BLOOD OF ANGELS and WHEN TIME RUNS OUT:

Naklada Ljevak decided to publish the novel BLOOD OF ANGELS by award-winning Finnish author Johanna Sinisalo because its subject – environmental disaster caused by annihilation of the bees – becomes an increasingly urgent problem and because of the highest literary value of the novel that combines ecological warning, mythological themes and human relationships.

Naklada Ljevak is proud to announce publishing the Croatian edition of the haunting eco-thriller and psychological drama WHEN TIME RUNS OUT by one of the most esteemed Finnish writers, Elina Hirvonen. The timely and universal theme of the relationship within a family set against the backdrop of climate crisis will surely resonate with Croatian readers.
Nada Brnardic, Editor, Naklada Ljevak, Croatia


BLOOD OF ANGELS
ENKELTEN VERTA
by Johanna Sinisalo
Teos, 2011, 275 pp.

“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.”

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.

Download the full English PDF here!


WHEN TIME RUNS OUT
KUN AIKA LOPPUU
by Elina Hirvonen
WSOY, 2015, 256 pp.

Helsinki, less than a decade in the future. Laura Anttila is lecturing at the university on climate change, hope, and the responsibility of humans. In the hallway, she is confronted by two police officers.

Laura’s daughter Aava encounters a woman who has just lost her daughter in a Somalian village. Having returned to her apartment, Laura hears that someone is shooting at people from the rooftop of the Lasipalatsi building in Helsinki.

When Time Runs Out is a powerful novel about parenthood, about finding your place, and about the responsibility of people to intervene in the course of events. Hirvonen wakes the reader to ponder what climate change and the lack of clean water can entail for humans in the future.

Download materials here!


I DON’T FEEL YOU BY MY SIDE
EN TUNNE SINUA VIERELLÄNI
by Tiina Raevaara
Teos, 2010, 260 pp.

A young man is looking for his fate while observing dragonflies, an unknown something takes the life of Matilda, and Mr. Gordon ends up in a birds’ hospital.

Tiina Raevaara’s I DON’T FEEL YOU BY MY SIDE is a novella collection, the texts of which, veering into the surreal, take the reader on a journey to the confluences of man and nature, dreams and subconsciousness, the circle of death and life. In this collection of 14 novellas, Raevaara shines the spotlight on the human mind and the forces tearing through its realities. The feelings of alienation and longing combine with a clear language and different narrators, each of whom wants to connect with themselves or someone next to them before it’s too late.

Request materials here!

ENKELTEN VERTA
Teos, 2011, 275 pp.

Reading materials:
English manuscript

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
BULGARIA: Perseus Publishing House
CROATIA: Naklada Ljevak
DENMARK: Jensen & Dalgaard
FRANCE: Actes Sud
HUNGARY: Metropolis Media Group
POLAND: Foksal Publishing Group
UNITED KINGDOM: Peter Owen Limited

 

KUN AIKA LOPPUU
WSOY, 2015, 256 pp.

Reading materials:
Finnish edition

Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Naklada Ljevak
CZECH REPUBLIC: Omega Publishing
ESTONIA: Varrak
LITHUANIA: Baltos Lankos
SWEDEN: Leopard Förlag
UK: Manilla

 

EN TUNNE SINUA VIERELLÄNI
Teos, 2010, 260 pp.

Reading materials:
Finnish edition

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
CROATIA: Mala Zvona

About author


Elina Hirvonen

Elina Hirvonen is an award-winning author and documentary filmmaker whose works have been translated into many languages. Hirvonen’s debut novel, When I Forgot, made the front page of The New York Times Book Review, and received rave reviews from the Independent, Guardian, Financial Times and Globe and Mail.

Hirvonen has won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize, the Young Aleksis Prize, has been nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Prize. She has received the prestigious 2023 Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö Literary Foundation Award, recognizing the artistic independence and high standard of her writing.

Her new novel, The Logbook of Love, was published in Finland in August 2023. The Logbook of Love is the first part of a trilogy of novels that create their world through conversations.

About author


Johanna Sinisalo

Johanna Sinisalo (b. 1958) is a Finlandia Prize-winning superstar of Finnish speculative fiction. In addition to her nine novels, she has also written short fiction and film and television screenplays. Her works have been translated into twenty languages.

Sinisalo has won several literary prizes also abroad, such as the 2004 James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the 2017 Prometheus Award, and was nominated for the Nebula Award in 2008, the Prix Escapades in 2012, and the Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire in 2017. In 2022, Johanna Sinisalo was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal for services to Finnish literature.

About author


Tiina Raevaara

Tiina Raevaara (b. 1979) is a writer, science journalist, and biologist who received a PhD for her work in genetics. She received the State Award for Public Information and the Pro Scientia Prize from the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. She has published eight novels, three non-fiction books, and a novella collection which was awarded the Runeberg Prize. Her suspense novel Double Helix (2020), the opening chapter of a new thriller series, received the Laurin Kirja audio book award, and the second installment in the series, Polar Vortex (2021), has been widely praised.

Raevaara’s books combine grand perspectives of natural science with compelling literary expression. She draws inspiration from Nordic nature, the major questions of science, and the complexities of humanity.

Raevaara lives in Kerava, a small town in Southern Finland, and goes on daily walks in the forest with her two black dogs.