A HEART WITH TWO MINDS Albanian language rights sold!

We have exciting news! A HEART WITH TWO MINDS by Ann-Luise Bertell Albanian language rights have been sold to Justina Prima! The deal was closed by Satu Sallantaus at Ahlbäck Agency.

REQUEST MATERIALS FOR A HEART WITH TWO MINDS HERE

Rut had loved two. Or loved. Loves. She had also loved her children, both the living and the dead, her parents, her grandmother, perhaps a friend or two. But two men.

The Continuation War rages in Finland, “a corner, one of the corners of the world”. Rut Blom is more than 40 years old, mother of three, and a farmer on Skuggas, a farm in Ostrobothnia that was her inheritance and from which she has never left. Her husband Verner and their 18-year-old son are fighting at the front line in Karelia and her unrest is constant. She finds it difficult to cope with all the work on the fields. A Soviet prisoner of war, Lieutenant Anton Demchenko from Ukraine, comes to her aid. He speaks the language of the enemy, but to Rut it sounds like a song.

Ann-Luise Bertell has secured her place as a great storyteller with her sensual, historical novels. Her novels are often set in her native area of Ostrobothnia, are short in the number of pages but with an epic breadth. A Heart With Two Minds depicts an intense half a year in one human’s life.

A HEART WITH TWO MINDS by Ann-Luise Bertell
Skuggas
, Förlaget 2025, 219 pp.

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Förlaget (orig. Finland-Swedish)
SWEDEN: Förlaget
FINLAND: Otava / Karisto
NORTH MACEDONIA: Justina Prima

Reading materials:
Swedish edition, English sample & synopsis

About author


Ann-Luise Bertell

Ann-Luise Bertell is a versatile artist who, with sensitivity, precision, and authenticity, has enriched both literature and the theater scene. Ann-Luise was born in Oravais in 1971 and lives in Vörå, and her artistry has deep roots in Ostrobothnia, with her heart beating for the power of storytelling.
She debuted as a poet in 1997 and has since written everything from children’s books and drama to acclaimed novels such as Vänd om min längtan, Glöm bort din saknad, and Heiman, which was nominated for the Finlandia Prize and the Runeberg Prize in 2020. Her latest novel, Skuggas, was published in the spring of 2025.
Her works are characterized by strong emotional depth, historical themes, and often deal with longing and sorrow, identity, and family ties. Her authorship has been compared to the great Västerbotten storytellers such as Sara Lidman and Torgny Lindgren, as well as Selma Lagerlöf. Ann-Luise herself admires authors such as Sofi Oksanen and Sara Stridsberg. She has also dramatized both Vänd om min längtan and Heiman for the stage.
As former director of Wasa Theatre (2010–2015 and 2020–2025), she has also demonstrated leadership and artistic vision, and her contributions have been recognized with several awards, including Svenska Yle’s Literature Prize, an award from the Swedish Academy, the Choraeus Prize, and in the spring of 2025, the Cultural Prize from the Swedish Ostrobothnian Society.

Photo credit: Linus Lindholm

Bibliography


2025, Literary Fiction

A Heart with Two Minds

Ann-Luise Bertell


2022, Literary Fiction

Yearning

Ann-Luise Bertell


2020, Literary Fiction

Homestead

Ann-Luise Bertell


2016, Literary Fiction

Longing

Ann-Luise Bertell