The Book of Oboi

In the city where nobody reads – can a book save the World? What about an orphaned boy who doesn’t believe in stories?

  • Veera Salmi is the bestselling author of over 20 titles.

A spectacular novel about a world where literacy has been decimated and a boy who does not believe in stories. Thirteen-year-old Oboi has run away to find his former homestead. He ends up in a peculiar and disaster-stricken city where no one knows how to read. People are led by the mysterious Wanda, who, via devices hooked up to one’s palm, says what everyone should know or do. At a flea market, Oboi meets a woman who gives him a book. According to her, this book can change everything and help find what Oboi thought was lost forever. Suddenly the story-averse Oboi notices he has become the hero, that orphaned boy deemed to save the whole world.

PRAISE:

In Veera Salmi’s youth novel straight out of the oven, literacy is lost and people are controlled by technology – The Book of Oboi praises stories, adventure and dreams.

– Keskipohjanmaa newspaper, Finland

In Veera Salmi’s youth novel straight out of the oven, literacy is lost and people are controlled by technology – The Book of Oboi praises stories, adventure and dreams.

Keskipohjanmaa newspaper, Finland


A Beautiful Day to Die

Isra has decided to die. But before that she needs to complete a rescue mission! Embark on a road trip with Isra, her friend Leo, 900 euros and a stolen sky-blue Hyundai.

Leo and Isra are not the most popular kids of their high school. They don’t have high expectations, and nobody expects much of them. So why not take a break from school – and a break from life, and try to do something meaningful before it’s all too late?

Funny, realistic and tragic story of teenagers who don’t know what they want, and are tired of trying to figure it out on their own.


Veera Salmi

Veera Salmi (1976) is a writer who lives in Helsinki. Prior to her career as a writer she worked for 15 years as a kindergarten teacher. The real starting point for her career as a writer was given by the children in the kindergarten, who said they no longer wanted to hear the same old stories that take place somewhere in the countryside. They wanted to hear stories about the city, the kind of place where they themselves lived. So she started writing such stories. First she wrote urban stories for children, then for adults and now for young adults as well. Veera Salmi is a bestselling author of over 20 books.

A Beautiful Day to Die is her brand new, urban young adults’ novel – even though the characters also leave the city. When Salmi wrote the book she travelled around Helsinki by metro, and listened to the teenagers and young adults, making notes about the rich, innovative and international language they used.