Three Ahlback Agency authors nominated for Lapland Literature award

We are happy to announce that three authors represented by the Ahlback Agency have been nominated for the Lapland Literature award! The nominees are Pine Bark by Tommi Kinnunen, The Investigations of a Certain Cat by Katja Kettu and Firstborn by Maria Peura.

The Lapland Literature Award is a prize awarded jointly by the libraries of Lapland to a Finnish-language work on a topic related to Lapland or written by an author from Lapland. With the award, libraries want to highlight high-quality literature from Lapland. The award ceremony, open to all, will take place on Libraries Day 19.3.2025 at Kolari Library.

Sculptor Kirsi Kaulanen selects the winner of the Lapland Literature Prize from six finalists.

Pine Bark by Tommi Kinnunen

2024 Finlandia Prize nominee in Fiction! Sold over 60,000 copies!

A densely atmospheric and arrestingly written novel about women’s fates in times of war, the difficulty of giving up, and how the proximity of death can change a person

A person cannot return to being who they once were without knowing who they have been.

In 2001, three siblings – Martti and twin sisters Eeva and Marja – meet in a small village in Northern Finland. Their mother Laina, an old woman who has been through the Second World War, is dying and the children have gathered to arrange the funeral. Even though the siblings have always been on good terms, Martti has always felt aloof, the odd man out. All of them reminisce about their childhood, but Martti remembers things slightly differently than the sisters.

As the novel progresses, the readers are transported through the decades and through Laina’s story, culminating in the Soviet partisan attack during the summer of 1944 that irrevocably changed Laina’s life. She has refused to recall the events and, at the same time, has denied her children the opportunity of remembering and recovering. “One can only talk about men’s war, as the women’s war is soundless and forbidden.”

As his mother’s death grows nearer, Martti reaches out to connect with his siblings and attempts to fill in the gaps in the story, but is it already too late?

The Investigations of a Certain Cat by Katja Kettu

Katja Kettu’s stunning novel spins through ages whilst surrendering to the wilderness of nature and the deep yearning for offspring.

Can one find solace and meaning in life from the past once the future no longer exists?

An Author has a miscarriage and loses their ability to speak and write. From the Investigative Bureau of Heavens, a Detective is sent to the scene, but something goes awry. Soon, in the corner of the room, there appears Cat who starts examining a mysterious diary that once belonged to the Author’s Great Grandmother.

When a new life has been lost, the Author turns their gaze to the past and to the age-old words of creation in the old Finnish outskirts. The one who knows them, Great Grandmother, has the power of healers. The Great Grandmother’s diary sheds light on birth and death, love towards children, and the strength of heritage in one’s blood.

Combining autofiction and elements of magical realism, Katja Kettu’s latest novel also sheds light on the history of the Finnish frontiers.

Firstborn by Maria Peura

A heartrending autobiographical novel about one’s own child being placed in an institution and about feeling out of place as a child

The author starts putting together the story of her firstborn child – a child whose ill-being and problematic behavior eventually led to him being placed in a child protection institution. Only now, when everything is okay, does the author dare to put her own distress and guilt into words. “What mistakes did I make? How was I trespassed against and why has my child ended up broken because of me being broken?

Maria Peura’s autobiographical novel is a relentlessly honest and lyrically beautiful depiction of the cycles of trauma, of the effects of violence, and the chance for light and survival.

Pine Bark
Kaarna, Tommi Kinnunen, 2024, 205 p.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
ESTONIA: Varrak
JAPAN: Shinchosha

The Investigations of a Certain Cat
Erään kissan tutkimuksia, Katja Kettu, 2023, 380 p.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
CZECHIA: Argo
DENMARK: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ESTONIA: Koolibri
GERMANY: Weissbooks
HUNGARY: Gondolat
ITALY: Mondadori
NORWAY: Pax Forlag
POLAND: Swiat Ksiazki
ROMANIA: Humanitas
SWEDEN: Albert Bonniers

Firstborn
Esikoinen, Maria Peura, 2023, 320 p.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

About author


Katja Kettu

Katja Kettu is an acclaimed and award-winning writer with a strong, unique voice from Northern Finland. Originally from Rovaniemi, Lapland, she graduated from the Turku Academy of Arts in 2001 as an animation director and has also studied in the University of Tampere and in the National Film and Television School in the UK. She has worked as a columnist for numerous Finnish newspapers and magazines.

Her debut novel Surujenkerääjä (2005) was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize and won the Tiiliskivi Prize, but her breakthrough came with The Midwife (orig. Kätilö, 2011), which won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize, the Runeberg Prize and the Thank You for the Book Medal. The rights for the novel have been sold to 19 countries, it has sold more than 160,000 copies in Finland, and in 2015 it was adapted into a film.

To date, she has published five novels, written or edited two collections of short stories, authored a graphic novel, edited a fiction/non-fiction book on women’s experiences with sexual harassment and violence, and a biography of Ismo Alanko, a Finnish musician. In addition, she has collaborated with photographer Meeri Koutaniemi and documentarist Maria Seppälä on a book and a TV series about Finnish emigrants in North America and their relationships with the Ojibwe people. Outside of literature, Kettu has directed, written or helped produce 10 animations and been a singer in the punk band Confusa.

Kettu’s works have been characterized as “Laplandic magical realism”. Kettu is meticulous in the research for her works and she is interested in microhistory, especially the fates of women caught up in conflicts where individuals have a limited influence on their lives.

Her novel Rose on poissa was a Finlandia Prize 2018 nominee. Kettu's works have been translated into 23 languages.

Katja Kettu's literary works:

Surujenkerääjä, 2005 WSOY

Hitsaaja, 2008 WSOY

Kätilö, 2011 WSOY

Piippuhylly, novelleja, 2013 WSOY

Novelli palaa! Matkanovelleja, co-edited with Aki Salmela, 2013 WSOY

Yöperhonen, 2015 WSOY

Peräkammarin poika, illustrated by Jan Andersson, 2015 Otava

Rose on poissa, 2018 WSOY

Erään kissan tutkimuksia, 2023 Otava

About author


Maria Peura

Maria Peura is a prize-winning author and dramaturge. She received the prestigious Young Aleksis Prize and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize for her debut novel Your Love Is Infinite (On rakkautes ääretön) in 2001. It also received the Olvi Foundation Award and the Good Deed for Children Award and was met with critical acclaim in Spain. At the Edge of Light (Valon reunalla) received stellar reviews in Finland, the Czech Republic, and in the UK, where it was published in 2007. Among Peura’s other works is a collection of poetry for children.

About author


Tommi Kinnunen

Tommi Kinnunen (1973) was born in Kuusamo in northeastern Finland and currently lives in Turku, where he works as a teacher of Finnish language and literature. His works include novels, opera librettos, short stories, and a non-fiction title on the changes taking place in the Finnish school system.

Kinnunen’s novels give a voice to those whose stories have been kept untold. He made a stellar debut with Where Four Roads Meet (orig. Neljäntienristeys) which was nominated for the Finlandia Prize and won the Young Aleksis Prize in 2015. The following novels The Light Behind the Eyes (orig. Lopotti), The Glass River (orig. Pintti), and Defiance (orig. Ei kertonut katuvansa) have been both critical and commercial successes. His books have been translated into 20 languages.

During his spare time, Kinnunen likes to refurbish old buildings.