The Storm Flute

Beauty comes in many forms—stunning, exciting, thrilling, perilous. Weather has all of them.

Predicting or altering the weather is the eternal dream of humanity. A merchant named Jonah, living in Assyria 600 years before the common era, gets caught in a storm. Is the storm a curse from God, or is it his own doing? In Finland in the 2010’s, Leena Lind loves her job as a meteorologist, but the activities of an aggressive finance company have her wasting her expertise at menial tasks. When her daughter Leia plays a game that involves making a video of a thunderstorm, Leena’s life is blown irretrievably off track and soon no one is safe anymore.


Naraka

The sequel to SANG takes the reader back to Fusang and the world where Kong Dawei is faced with impossible choices.

  • Part 2 in a fantasy duology by the talented YA writer and TikTok star Elina Pitkäkangas!
  • SANG won the Topelius Award 2023!
  • Praised by readers and critics for its convincing world-building, multifaceted characters and cinematic descriptions
  • Rare representation of sign language in YA

The new novel about war and human relations by the winner of the Topelius Prize

Kong Dawei has returned to his home region, but nothing is the same. The second book of the duology, loved by readers and praised by experts, is a vivid and an intensive novel about war, morals, and ever holding love.

The sequel of the top-rated book SANG presents Fusang’s region Naraka, a workcamp where the unfortunate citizens are sent. The resistance is growing there. When Kong Dawei finds himself in the middle of The Iron Revolution, he must face the boundaries of his loyalty. Whose side does he want to be on? Can there be winners in the war?

Praise for Sang:

The dystopian novel upholds a beautiful and dark atmosphere in the state of Fusang. Sang is an epic story about a youngster trying to fight against the impossible circumstances of a totalitarian state. Kong Dawei joins the rebels, and breathtaking events follow one another. Pitkäkangas’ skill to conjure with believable details a whole world is enchanting. Our choices create a chain which not only joins us together, but also in the end defines who and what we are. Sang is a story about love, but above all it is a story about morale: all the things we are ready to do for one another.”   – the Topelius Award jury

“In the dystopian world recovering from a brutal war the different societal classes are miles apart, and the distance grows with a citizenship debt to be paid yearly. [–] Pitkäkangas describes the inequality and abuse of power skillfully. Warmth and balance is brought by the love between the brothers, but also romantic love and sexual desire. The object of the feelings is a friend, another boy, and the queer theme fits Sang without a fault.” – Arla Kanerva in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

“Elina Pitkäkangas is an incredibly skilled storyteller. The story of Sang sucks me in before I can blink. With all my senses, I’m deep in the story, thanks to the detailed descriptions. I love it when I can feel so many emotions when reading a book – sadness, joy, anger, relief, happiness… [–] I also want to applaud the representation and using sensitivity readers. This is how a good book is made!” – Paperimato bookstagram


Dragonfly

  • Independent prequel to 2021 Finlandia winner Where the Light Comes In!
  • Topelius Prize Nominee 2020
  • Young Aleksis Award Nominee 2021
  • Rights sold to Editions Milan in France in a two-book deal!

A shocking, brilliantly told story about resistance in an unequal society.   Two young women, Satomi and Mai have always stuck together. They were born in an internment village on an island that was called Japan before sea level rose. They are non-citizens whose purpose is to serve full citizens.

On good nights they go to the seaside together to wade. They still have that, even if everything else has been taken away from them.

Then Commander Rafikov takes Mai to make her a Nymph.

And Satomi can’t just wait anymore.

“I’m standing here and coming apart inside, just like that. I’m only thinking of the end.”


The Moonday Letters

Dystopian love story meets sci-fi thriller somewhere between the Earth, Mars and the Moon!

#sci-fi #future #space #moon #earth #marriage #secrets #activism

Lumi is an Earth-born healer whose Mars-born spouse Sol disappears unexpectedly on a work trip. As Lumi begins her quest to find Sol, she delves gradually deeper into Sol’s secrets – and her own.

While recalling her own path to becoming a healer under the guidance of her mysterious teacher Vivian, she discovers an underground environmental group called Stoneturners, which may have something to do with Sol’s disappearance. Lumi’s search takes her from the wealthy colonies of Mars to Earth that has been left a shadow of its former self due to vast environmental destruction. Gradually, she begins to understand that Sol’s fate may have been connected to her own for much longer than she thought.

Part space-age epistolary, part eco-thriller, The Moonday Letters is also a love story between two individuals from very different worlds.


Strangers Inside

Modern horror story based on the latest science – this could almost happen to anyone!

There is a slightly unconventional family, including a more than a little unconventional daughter with some very, very unconventional thoughts. Something uncanny creeps into their lives, as these seemingly inexplicable injuries appear on the children. Something dangerous and freaky seems to be at large… With the first signs of violence, a horrible question arises: Who is trying to cruelly damage the family? Is it an external threat – or could it be someone… or something… from the inside?

Strangers Inside is a modern horror story, but also a stunning, gripping and frightening description of crooked family dynamics. The story is delivered by three different narrator voices, all of them having their blind points of view. Is the ultimate enemy, ripping the family slowly apart, coming from the circle of people that are closest to you?

 


The Bear’s Bride

The prize-winning debut about the ancient Finnish bear myth and gendered power.

The Bear’s Bride is a spellbinding novel about two women, Aslaug and Freydis, from two villages in the far North. They say their prayers and leave their sacrifices for the Great Bear to keep their villages under its protection, even when the ancient ways of worship are under a looming threat. Unbeknownst to each other, they seem to be sharing not only a fate, but also a past. Will they succumb to what future has in store for them, or fight for their right to choose their own destinies?

The novel draws inspiration from Finnish mythology and Viking history and tackles the themes of free will and gendered power structures. With lyrical and serene language, Törmänen transfers us to a time and place that never were – but still feel so familiar.


Bookwitch

Bookwitch is a spellbinding Young Adult story set in a world where books are banned and witches rule in the realm of Helby, a parallel world to Helsinki as we know it. When seventeen-year-old Aura becomes an assistant at the House of Lost Dreams, little does she know she is about to discover a secret chamber full of books, and about her own destiny as a powerful witch who must face dark forces to save all that she loves. A gripping story about self-realization, betrayal and good triumphing evil.


IRON SKY: RENATE’S STORY

The story of a young woman, surrounded by a world at war, who lives in the middle of hostile forces in a Nazi fortress on the dark side of the moon

Renate’s Story is based on earlier versions of the original Iron Sky screenplay, and on the background research conducted by author Johanna Sinisalo, who led the film’s original story team. The novel will be launched simultaneously with the premiere of Iron Sky: The Coming Race in 2018.

Renate’s Story is a completely independent work and contains pitch-black humor narrating the ways in which its main character, Renate Richter – raised on the National Socialist values of the 1940s – regards the cultures and habits of those inhabiting the distant Planet Earth.


Rights sold (Renate’s Story):
FINLAND, Johnny Kniga/WSOY
FRANCE, Actes Sud
GERMANY, Klett-Cotta
HUNGARY, Metropolis Media


The Handless Kings and Other Disturbing Tales

Johanna Sinisalo’s retrospective collection of short stories, The Handless Kings and Other Disturbing Tales, consists of both stories published earlier and completely new ones. The prize stories have been extolled by Finnish science fiction fans: three of the stories published in the collection have been awarded the Atorox prize. The novelette Baby Doll was shortlisted for the Nebula Award in 2009. The stories in the collection are set in places familiar to us and yet somehow amazingly different.


The Glass-Eye

The Glass-Eye is a ruthless psychological thriller which describes the dynamics of a close, creative work team. It describes how Taru finds herself in a world where the boundaries of fiction and facts blur and the prophecies begin to come true. In the world of Glass-Eye Taru learns that all relationships have hidden meanings and that nothing is necessarily what it seems. When Taru’s little sister Aija appears on the scene, the events take another turn and there is no turning back.

Johanna Sinisalo’s works hook the reader straight away. Her stories open doors to new worlds: they look at life from strange angles, they create suspense and make the reader laugh as well. Sinisalo’s books always offer sharp and open-minded analysis, and criticism of contemporary society. The Glass-Eye is not an exception. Is the television screen a window to another world or maybe it is a mirror? Does the glass-eye observe us from the corner of our living room instead of us observing it, just as George Orwell predicted?


Hidden Powers

Hidden Powers – A Guide to Hiking Trails Both Dark and Bright comprises one novelette and half a dozen other short stories, all inspired by hiking. Sinisalo pushes the boundaries of realism in her stories about humans’ relationship to nature.
The fictional stories are accompanied with nonfictional anecdotes about Sinisalo’s own hiking experiences and a section of practical tips for planning a trek.


Troll

The international fantasy bestseller (published in the U.S as Troll) and winner of the Finlandia Prize. Mikael, a young gay photographer, finds in the courtyard of his apartment block a small, man-like creature. It is a young troll, familiar from Scandinavian mythology: a demonic, wild beast. And it is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. Supposedly extinct, today it is regarded as a hairy, cuddly toy by Nordic children. Mikael gives the troll a name, Pessi, and takes him home and hides him.

The first thing Mikael does is research everything he can about trolls from the internet, from folklore, nature journals and newspaper cuttings.What Mikael does not discover is that trolls exude pheromones that smell like a Calvin Klein aftershave and that this has a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those around him. Shooting an assignment for an ultra-hip brand of jeans, Mikael finds himself fast-tracked into a dangerous liaison with Martes, the sexually ambivalent art director of the advertising agency concerned, while a couple of his friends in turn fall in love with him because he carries the troll’s scent. What Mikael fails above all to learn, with tragic consequences, is that Pessi the troll is the interpreter of man’s darkest, most forbidden impulses.


Rights sold:
Albania, Dituria
Brazil, Devir
Bulgaria, Perseus
Czech Republic, One Woman Press
Denmark, Jensen & Dalgaard
France, Actes Sud
Germany, Tropen (Klett-Cotta)
Japan, Sunmark*
Latvia, Atena
Lithuania, Vaga
Poland, Terytoria*
Russia, Amphora*
Slovenia, Modrijan*
Spain, Polledro*
Sweden, Wahlström&Widstrand
UK, Peter Owen
USA, Grove Atlantic
*Rights reverted


Reading materials:
Finnish edition
English edition
French edition


Birdbrain

Birdbrain is a skilful portrait of the unquenchable desire of Westerners for the pure and the primitive. A young Finnish couple, Jyrki and Heidi, go on the hiking trip of a lifetime in Australasia with Heart of Darkness as reading material. To Jyrki’s great surprise, his girlfriend Heidi demands to come with him, frightened by the idea of several months of solitude. The trip gradually turns into a tortuous thriller with belongings disappearing and, even more mysteriously, reappearing. The travellers come to be at the mercy of untamed nature Birdbrain describes Western people’s desperate longing for somewhere unspoilt and primitive with biting irony. At the same time, it reveals the dark side of this longing, showing it to be an insatiable desire to control, invade and destroy.. Birdbrain reveals the dark side of the explorer’s desire: the insatiable need to control, to invade and leave one’s mark on the landscape. But what happens when nature starts to fight back?

 The Guardian newspaper and Publishers Weekly both included the novel on their list of recommendations.


Rights sold:
UK, Peter Owen
France, Actes Sud
Norway, Vega


Reading materials:
Finnish edition
English edition
French edition
Norwegian edition


Blood of Angels

“The queen is dead. The bees are gone. Thus, the world is about to end. But if you follow the bees, there are doors in the air. And a desperate man is ready to go through one.”

Albert Einstein is claimed to have said that if bees disappear from the earth, mankind has four years left to live. When mass bee-vanishings of unprecedented scope and devastation hit the United States, Orvo, a beekeeper, knows all too well where it will lead. And one day, when Orvo goes to check on his hives, he is forced to witness something he wishes he had never lived to see. The queen is dead. The epidemic has spread to Europe. The world is coming to an end.

The light of Orvo’s life is his son, Eero, whose secret animal activist existence Orvo discovers far too late. Eero’s activities as a defender of animal rights and an ardent opponent of Orvo’s inherited way of life propel the family into irreversible, gutwrenching conflict. Orvo takes a desperate step onto a path where only he and the bees know the way… This novel is a magical plunge into the myth of death and immortality, a tale of human blindness in the face of overwhelming choices and inevitabilities.


Rights sold:
World English, Peter Owen
Denmark, Jensen & Dalgaard
France, Actes Sud
Poland, Foksal

 


The Core of the Sun

Johanna Sinisalo tells the story of The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland in 2013. Her thriller-like story of flight and fight is also between the lines a feisty social polemic. How did Finland turn into the North Korea of Europe?

The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland has prioritized social stability and national health, and outlawed practically everything that might give one pleasure or cause addiction. Well, almost everything: the distribution of sex, an essential commodity of pleasure, is made as efficient as possible. In order to achieve this, the state has bred a new human subspecies: one that is receptive, submissive and always willing. They used to be called women.

Vanna and Jare become involved in buying and selling a stimulant known to be extremely dangerous: chili. Then Jare comes across a strange religious cult in possession of the Core of the Sun, a pungent chili that is too hot to handle.

See here for a rave review of The Core of the Sun by Finland’s largest daily newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat.


Rights sold (The Core of the Sun):
FINLAND, Teos
CZECH, Euromedia
DENMARK, Jensen & Dalgaard
FRANCE, Actes Sud
GERMANY, Klett-Cotta
HUNGARY, Metropolis Media
LATVIA, Petergailis
SPAIN, Roca
TURKEY, Ithaki
WORLD ENGLISH, Grove Atlantic

core  avecjoieetdocilite

 


Memory of Water

Memory of Water is a story of growing up, of the power of friendship – and, above all, of undying hope in a wrecked world.

Emmi Itäranta‘s debut novel Memory of Water (Teemestarin kirja) won the Teos Fantasy and Sci-fi Literary Contest in 2011 and earned her the Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize for young authors, worth 16.000 euros, in December 2012. She also received the Young Aleksis Kivi Prize in 2013.

The story is set in a drought-ravaged, war-ridden future world where fresh water has become the privilege of a few and tea masters have been keepers of natural springs for centuries, Memory of Water tells the story of seventeen-year-old Noria, set to become the next tea master in her village. When her father dies, she finds herself alone with the dangerous responsibility of guarding a hidden spring that can save lives – or provoke people to kill.

As war spreads into her homeland, Noria’s loyalties are torn between keeping her duty and helping her dearest friend Sanja, whose family can barely survive on their water rations. Together the girls unearth knowledge about the past that has remained buried too long and begin to plan a journey to the Lost Lands, forbidden areas that might hold unexplored water resources.

Yet the web of the military is closing in on Noria’s secret. Sanja disappears mysteriously, and Noria is placed under house arrest. Knowing her own life is in danger, Noria must face a choice in order to secure the hidden information for others.


Rights sold:
FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
ARABIC: Dar Al Muna
BRAZIL: Record
BULGARIA: Perseus
CHINA: Sichuan People’s Publishing House
CZECH REPUBLIC: Albatros Media/Plus
DENMARK: Turbine
ESTONIA: Koolibri
FRANCE: Place des Editeurs
GEORGIA: Palitra L Publishing
GERMANY: DTV/Reihe Hanser
HUNGARY: Metropolis Media
ITALY: Piemme
JAPAN: Nishimura Shoten
KOREA: The Book in My Life
LATVIA: Janis Roze
LITHUANIA: Nieko Rimto
NORWAY: Gresvik Forlag
RUSSIA: Text Publishers
SPAIN: Ediciones B.
SWEDEN: Modernista
TURKEY: Dogan Egmont
WORLD ENGLISH: HarperCollins
FILM RIGHTS: Bufo


The Weaver

The tapestry of life may be more fragile than it seems: pull one thread, and all will unravel.

In The Weaver, human life has little value. You practice a craft to keep you alive, or you are an outcast, unwanted and tainted. Eliana is a young weaver in the House of Webs, but secretly knows she doesn’t really belong there. She is hiding a shameful birth defect that would, if anyone knew about it, land her in the House of the Tainted, a prison for those whose very existence is considered a curse.

When an unknown woman with her tongue cut off and Eliana’s name tattooed on her skin arrives at the House of Webs, Eliana discovers an invisible network of power behind the city’s facade. All the while, the sea is clawing the shores and the streets are slowly drowning.


RIGHTS SOLD:

Original publisher: FINLAND, Teos
BRAZIL, Record
FRANCE, Place des Editeurs
GEORGIA, Palitra L Publishing
GERMANY, Arctis
HUNGARY, Metropolis Media
ITALY, Sperling & Kupfer/Frassinelli
JAPAN, Nishimura Shoten
UK, HarperCollins/HarperVoyager
US, HarperCollins/HarperVoyager