Loukko by 
We are happy to announce the second foreign deal for MARIUS by Finlandia Winner Sirpa Kähkönen as Blessing Verlag (Penguin Random House) has acquired the German rights. Blessing also published Sirpa Kähkönen’s Finlandia Winning 36 Urns (Komm, Mama) in November 2025. The deal was closed by Martti Berner at Ahlbäck Agency.
This follows the recent Swedish rights deal with Lind & Co. In addition to strong international interest, the book has received rave reviews in Finland, and it is currently #5 on the Finnish bestseller charts for printed books.
This is what Blessing’s Editorial Director Silja Maehl thought of Marius:
I could immediately tell that it’s a both timely and beautifully timeless novel. […] One of things that moved me is the way Sirpa writes about desire and about getting older without separating the two. […] She allows an older woman to desire, to remember, to fantasize, to make art, to grieve, and to enjoy herself. Sirpa never reduces her to her age or to what she has lost. […] The sensuality of the writing makes all of this feel immediate, while Lili’s clear-eyed reflections keep it from becoming sentimental. […] In many ways Marius made me think of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
REQUEST MATERIALS FOR MARIUS HERE
“It is once again a completely new Kähkönen, gentler and bolder than ever, yet in its beautiful, lucid language and its evocation of memories, unmistakably Kähkönen. [–] Kähkönen portrays ageing with extraordinary tenderness and beauty. [–] The novel’s vision of the world is so compassionate that Kähkönen seems to have made the nurturing of light an important question in her work as a writer, too. Marius is simply a gem.”
– Suomen Kuvalehti magazine
MARIUS is a one-day novel about memory, longing, and desire. Sixty-year-old Lili has developed an intense crush for the young Frenchman Marius, to whom she said goodbye the previous night, and is having a hard time to let go. Then Marius sends her a message, hinting that he may show up again, and the sadness turns into longing. While Lili waits for Marius, she starts thinking back to her youth, her past lovers, romantic adventures, and her fascination with arts and the work of a painter she came to know in her youth. Memories, sensations, and feelings lull her all day and as evening falls Lili is no longer waiting, but she is content.
Reading material:
English sample and full English draft translation, English synopsis, Finnish edition
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Siltala (orig.)
GERMANY: Blessing Verlag (PRH Germany)
SWEDEN: Lind & Co
