INHERITED LAND by Maria Turtschaninoff won the Swedish YLE Literature Prize 2022!

We couldn’t be more thrilled to share with you that INHERITED LAND by Maria Turtschaninoff has been awarded the prestigious Swedish YLE Literature Prize 2022! Huge congratulations, Maria!

This award is annually given to the best Finland-Swedish book of the year during Helsinki Bookfair and is regarded as one of the most important award for Finland-Swedish authors.

From the press release about the award:

“INHERITED LAND speaks to the part of the reader that is Finnish-Swedish, to the part that is nostalgic but still lives in the modern world, where the only alternative is to let go off what has already happened, because one doesn’t have the strength to hold on as the evolution advances with such tremendous speed. Turtschaninoff managed to create an amazing spread of humanity’s different, raw, but so recognisable parts – and still, all dishes fit into the whole and are beautifully served. INHERITED LAND is above all a book that comes so incredibly close to humans.  

These are parts of the award motivation for the prize that Turtschaninoff receives. As a Finland-Swedish fantasy author, she has so far mainly written for a younger target audience. INHERITED LAND is her first adult novel and the book was published in the beginning of this year.

“The Swedish Yle Literature Prize wants to highlight Finland-Swedish authors and Finland-Swedish literature. It is a way of paying homage to the writers close to us, who are expanding our world and allowing us to look beyond our own lives through their works. INHERITED LAND takes us to a village in Ostrobothnia and life there for four centuries. It is strongly rooted in time and place, but with an intensity and sensuality in the description of human destinies that carry it into the present. A magical and incredibly touching reading experience, and I am happy that this particular book receives the prize this year!”, says Johanna Törn-Mangs, Director of Svenska Yle.

This year, the jury consisted of human rights activist Panda Eriksson.

“I read Turtschaninoff’s INHERITED LAND in one day, more or less without stopping. It hurt me when I put the book down: There is something in it that talks to the part of me that is Finnish-Swedish, to the part of me that is nostalgic but still lives in the modern world, where the only alternative is to let go of what has already happened”, summarizes Eriksson their reading experience.”

Maria Turtschaninoff already won the Swedish YLE Literature Prize in 2014 for her YA novel Maresi.

INHERITED LAND has been our agency’s fastest ever moving fiction book and is now already sold to 11 territories.

Do get in touch with us if you want to pick up with now award-winning literary gem of a novel for your list!

Download the reading materials for INHERITED LAND here