Whale in a Glass Bowl

Join the journey of a whale and a woman and uncover the keys to sustainability – the Earth can be saved with tools of human behavioral biology. Humans are like a whale in a glass bowl, trapped despite our big brains.

Climate conferences and science studies, carbon caps and environmental education – sensible methods to halt the ecological crisis seem to have failed. Rational, collaborative and moralistic ways to prevent environmental destruction might seem like good ways to promote sustainability, but the equation breaks down once we notice that our species is not as rational, collaborative, and moralistic as one might wish. We are biological creatures with biological limitations, and without acknowledging those limitations, we are doomed to boil the planet and crush the biodiversity of our world.

In her new book, young researcher Maria Katajavuori sets out to uncover what’s wrong with our current Earth-saving approach – and how to fix it. She visits falling forests, melting glaciers, as well as preposterous scenes of environmental policymaking, and, on the way, illustrates the issues of our innate tendencies through latest science on human behavioral biology. Vivid examples of flying squirrels, migrating trout, African penguins, and numerous other species reveal the paradoxes of good intentions with bad outcomes. An encounter with a beluga, the white whale of the Arctic, provides a parable for humanity’s struggle: like the swimming of whales, behavior of humans is steered by our genome, and we are having hard time pushing against the destructive urges.

Yet, the beluga parable also provides us with the solution: the behavior of whales can be transformed by changing their surroundings, by shifting a small aquarium pool to an open ocean, and likewise, the behavior of humans can be transformed by changing our societal surroundings. If we fine tune our economic system and decision-making to fit the biology of our species, if we re-design taxation and democracy based on what we know about our evolutionary history, we can fight our destructive tendencies as well as harness the power of our positive tendencies, those of collaboration and prosociality. At the end of the day, all that is needed is to remember: we are no more or less than whales.


US&Us: Surviving Hollywood With Comedy

A Finnish comedian-writer couple arrives in Los Angeles. Is the city ready for them?

The authors share their personal story of navigating through the Hollywood comedy industry and the American way of life as a freshly arrived writer-comedian couple from a very different society. As they examine this new world and how their old one looks from afar, they end up realizing their life is like an ongoing stand-up bit. And that the line between tragedy and comedy is truly so fine it’s in many ways non-existent.

US&Us: Surviving Hollywood with Comedy is the international version of Finland’s #1 bestselling nonfiction title Suo, kuokka ja Hollywood, by the same authors, which was published in Finland in March 2021 and has sold more than 62,000 copies across all formats. Full English text available!


The Meaning Manifesto

Are you ready to experience meaningful work and make it possible? Start your journey with this book!

Work occupies a more central role in our lives than just a way of making ends meet. At best, work fills our lives with meaningfulness, making our whole existence more worth living. At worst, it is a desperate toil that alienates us from who we are and what’s good in life. In modern knowledge work requiring expertise and self-management, innovativeness and productivity require commitment and high-quality motivation – key benefits that meaningfulness can offer.

How, then, can we make work more meaningful? In principle, the recipe for meaningful work is surprisingly simple: do personally interesting and engaging things, while making a positive contribution to other people. However, making that into reality is the tough part. Here, the book will offer you key tools, mindsets, and strategies to make both your own work and the work of those around you more meaningful.

THE MEANING MANIFESTO by Frank Martela, the acclaimed author of the internationally-bestselling A WONDERFUL LIFE, helps you navigate modern work life towards a more purposeful career and meaningful everyday work experience. The book also explains what managers and leaders can do to enhance the meaningfulness that employees are experiencing. Finishing by taking a broad, societal perspective on meaningful work, the book shows what structural changes are needed to make purpose-centered business an industry standard.

The book relies on the author’s extensive research into meaningful work combined with examples of vanguard individuals and companies around the world that are making a new, more meaningful world of work a reality. Along the way we meet entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors, and politicians making their mark as forerunners of work with a purpose.


The Little Book of Bad Moods for Relationships

It’s annoying. It’s irritating. It’s your relationship.

Let’s face it – no relationship is like spending an eternity in the bliss of cloud nine. However lovely, caring, and thoughtful your significant other might be, there are always moments when you have to muster up all of your strength to not let the other know what you really think about them. And why is it that the one closest to you always keeps saying and doing all the wrong things?

Not to worry – THE LITTLE BOOK OF BAD MOODS FOR RELATIONSHIPS is here to the rescue!

Fill this adult activity book with your disappointments in relationships, reveal your true thoughts about your significant other (and exes!) and mark down the romantic duds. Reminisce about your worst dates, play some argument bingo and ensure that your partner’s errors are never forgotten!

The perfect book for you, who would really rather be single.


The Story of Aino and Alvar Aalto

The love story of the world-famous, pioneering design couple Aino and Alvar Aalto, written by the Aaltos’ grandson

Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino are internationally celebrated for their architecture, furniture, glassware, and other interior design, but their personal lives have been relatively unknown – until now. This book, written by the Aaltos’ grandson, stands apart from countless other works on the Aalto’s lives and careers. It contains photos, sketches, and personal letters between Aino and Alvar, beautifully illustrating how inseparable this couple was both in work and love, and bringing a deeply human element to their story.

“Countless books have been written about Alvar Aalto’s architecture and other works. Recently, Aino Marsio-Aalto has also received the recognition she deserves in her own right as well as in her role as the partner of Alvar Aalto in his rise as one of the leading architects of the 20th century,” says Heikki Aalto-Alanen. “The voice in this book is personal. I want to tell the story of Aino’s and Alvar’s unique partnership, relationship, and their joint life work from the perspective of a family member. I also want their own voices to be heard.”

In addition to the photographs from the family archive, the book is illustrated with Aino’s and Alvar’s drawings of each other and of their children, along with architectural drawings and photographs.


Extraordinary Women of History

Extraordinary “Badass” Women of History – meet Pirates, Psychics, Priestesses and Princess Spies and 96 other women whose stories your history teacher never told you.

The captain who ruled the biggest pirate fleet in history. The scientist who changed our understanding of physics, while taking the most famous geniuses of her time as her lovers, and getting in trouble for gambling. The con-artist who could fool any jeweler in Europe. The baseball star who played wearing a fake beard. Teenagers recruited by the Resistance because of their innocent looks, who learned to blow up railways and shoot Nazis from their bicycles. The master of Jujutsu who taught the Suffragettes to fight back. The cult leader who made her followers undergo cosmetic surgery to look more like her. The kidnapped girl who ended up ruling the biggest empire that had ever existed, with her female lover as her queen.

Extraordinary Women of History introduces over a hundred exceptional women from different periods of history and from all corners of the world. It is a veritable treasury of captivating stories and unsung ballads about the exciting women in history. Outrageous, amazing, terrible, heroic, thrilling and above all extraordinary; their life stories make the reader gasp and ask: “Why haven’t I heard of them before?”

Extraordinary Women of History is the nonfiction event of 2020. Maria Pettersson shared brief vignettes of exciting historical women on social media. Several publishers fought for the book rights, and the book raised the second-biggest crowdfunding total for a book in Finnish history and was immediately made into a podcast series by the Finnish public broadcasting company. It has enjoyed exceptional media coverage and has been featured in almost all noteworthy newspapers, the biggest magazines and on every Finnish TV channel. The second printing came out on the same day that the book was published, and the third three days later.


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Atena (orig.)
ESTONIA: Äripäev


The Greatest of All is Love. The Marimekko story

The breath-taking rags-to-riches story of Marimekko’s former owner and CEO Kirsti Paakkanen, who turned the fortunes of the iconic brand around. This is the true story of how a retired businesswoman took over the practically bankrupt Finnish design house and turned Marimekko into a successful worldwide brand name.

  • #1 Bestselling non-fiction title on Finland’s official bestseller list since publication! 
  • Feature film in development by Aurora Studios

Kirsti Paakkanen was born into a family who wished for a boy. She left home at the age of 16, carrying only a cardboard box containing her clothes, a vast amount of self-confidence and a dream to make use of her talent to create something new. At the age of 62 she was on the verge of retiring when she bought Marimekko – an almost bankrupt design house, which she transformed. And the rest is history. This charismatic businesswoman has had it all. Never forgetting where she came from, in this book Kirsti Paakkanen openly shares the ups and downs of her life and her incredible journey from the small rural district of Saarijärvi in the middle of Finland to the French Riviera.

 


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
ESTONIA: Helios
JAPAN: Shodensha


Mini Science 2: Invisible World

In the second title of Mini Science series – INVISIBLE WORLD – the adorable Plop will discover the things one cannot see: electricity, garden in the fog, darkness, micro-organisms and other invisible things.

When Plop will get sick, he will learn about bacteria and viruses and how to avoid them. Vaccinations can seem scary, but they keep us healthy!
Sometimes it’s better to stay home, even if this makes you bored, so that soon you could go discovering the Dark Side of The Moon!

Rights sold:

FINLAND (Orig.): Karisto
TURKEY: Yapi Kredi Publishing


The Little Book of Bad Moods at Work

New adult activity book by Lotta Sonninen and Piia Aho focuses on the dark side of every workplace! Fill this book with your struggles with open office space, infuriating clients and all the needless meetings. List the worst managers, the most frustrating tasks and the idiotic organizational changes or policies.The perfect book for office rats and other invisible people behind the screen!

 


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
RUSSIA: Bombora


Mini Science 1: Where Are You

New science series for the smallest in the family!

Mini Science is a new nonfiction series for the smallest in the family. The series will tackle big science questions with lovely illustrations, and encourages kids to wonder and ask questions. It feeds curiosity and is designed to start conversations about different topics that children might not think about on their own.

In Where Are You? we follow Plop, a little creature who guides us through space to the Earth and from there to the human DNA and finally to the world of atoms. Zooming in all the way from the enormities of space to the minisculness of atoms, we learn a great deal in between.


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Minerva (orig.),
ESTONIA: Avita
GREECE: Klidarithmos
TURKEY: Yapi Kredi Publishing


Future Skills

What are the 12+1 skills that will help you defeat the fear of the future?

The next revolution is a human revolution, according to Perttu Pölönen, a futurist, inventor and an inspirational speaker. We should develop courage, adaptability, compassion, storytelling, patience and curiosity, to name a few, in order to succeed in the era of machines, robots and artificial intelligence. Pölönen will explain how.

Future skills is an essential book for parents, educators and everybody who wants to prepare themselves for an uncertain future. The book challenges assumptions about the future and provides insightful and thought-provoking observations – there’s a lot to digest. When the world is developing so fast, we should not focus on what is changing but rather find what is not going to change. What makes us different from machines, makes us happy.

Future Skills has become an instant bestseller in Finland where its readers have reported to have changed their career paths and found meaning in their current jobs. The book gives hope. Pölönen is a bright young mind who’s personal experiences and stories make it lively and engaging and you will find yourself laughing and sobbing. When nothing is certain, everything is possible.

 


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
KOREA: BP Publisher
TURKEY: Büyükada
WORLD ENGLISH: Start Publishing / Viva Editions
WORLD ENGLISH (audio): Recorded Books


Putin’s Trolls

True stories from the frontlines of the Russian information warfare

Russia is waging a war against civilians online. Every critical voice is an enemy. In the last few years there have been countless international, sometimes criminal online campaigns against private people throughout the Western countries – orchestrated and approved by the Kremlin.

In this courageous book, award-winning journalist Jessica Aro reveals in detail her own dramatic experiences of being targeted by a troll army. Told in unflinching  detail, Jessikka’s extraordinary story is supported by accounts from many distinguished and internationally known critics of the Kremlin, including Bill Browder, Eliot Higgins, Liz Wahl, Martin Kragh, Jelena Milic and many others – all of whom share their experiences of being the targets of Russia’s hateful and multifaceted cyber-espionage campaigns.

Well-documented true stories show that Russia does not shy away from the darkest means of eliminating its opponents through cyber-espionage, social media trolls, fake news, cyber-attacks, death threats and hate campaigns by PR professionals.

 


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Johnny Kniga (orig.)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Denik N
ESTONIA: Menu Meedia/Stratkom
HUNGARY: Corvina
LITHUANIA: Briedis
POLAND: Wydawnictwo Sine Qua Non
ROMANIA: Lebada Neagra


Wild East

Wild East is a new nonfiction about the Finnish tribal wars and the fierce events of the year 1919.

The First World War did not end in November 1918. With the collapse of the Russian Empire and the Bolshevik revolution warfare in Eastern Europe continued for years. Revolutionary, counter-revolutionary and national armies of new nations struggled for the remnants of the destroyed empire.The war lottery attracted the Finns to carry it out the greatest dream of Finnish nationalism: Greater Finland.

Wild East is a story of the year 1919 and the events known as the tribal wars that broke out in order to extend Finland’s borders far to the east. It is the story of Finland and the Finns in a violent, sad and almost tragicomic adventure where for a moment anything seemed possible.


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
ESTONIA: Rahva Raamat
ROMANIA: Lebada Neagra
SWEDEN: Lind & Co.


The Enchanted Planet Earth

There is a planet where plants plan world domination. Where beasts are good, and trees live for thousands of years, collecting memories in their bark. This enchanted place is Earth.

This book has 10 stories, and 10 maps. They may sound or look like they are out of a fairy-tale, but they are real, true maps of our planet. The Enchanted Planet Earth is a children’s non-fiction book that also engages adults. Through magical maps it teaches about nature, oceans and the history of continents. The stories also provide a context where adults and kids can discuss the environmental issues and how people’s actions affect nature. Through narratives the book explains the real processes that change our planet and make the Earth habitable.

RIGHTS SOLD:

FINLAND: Kustantamo S&S (orig.)
RUSSIA: AST


Weird Weather! Why does climate change?

Climate changes, why don’t we? Weird weather! answers children’s tough questions about climate change, and tells how we can all fight against it.

Two clever buddies, Lotta and Kasper get tired of their parents’ evasive answers about weird weather. They decide to research what climate change is really is
about!

Weird weather! is accurate but hopeful children’s nonfiction that explains how humans are responsible for climate change
and what we can do to ensure a brighter future. It also gives tips on how everyone can make better choices and practice climate skills every day. But climate change won’t be beaten with tiny tricks, and this book also encourages talking to children about how to make changes in society, and how working together can change everything.


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Into Kustannus (orig.)
ESTONIA: Avita
HUNGARY: Ciceró Könyvstúdió
ITALY: Mondadori/Edizioni Piemme
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
MEXICO: (Latin American Spanish rights): Ordinal Books
NORWAY: Aschehoug
POLAND: Amber
SERBIA: Odiseja
SLOVAKIA: Ikar
SPAIN: Astronave
SWEDEN: Rabén & Sjögren
TURKEY: Kolektif
UNITED STATES (North America) Skyhorse Publishing/Sky Pony Press


Daily Sisu: How to tap into Finnish fortitude for a more resilient life

Daily Sisu is an illustrated, hands-on guide on how to use sisu – the unique Finnish concept of fortitude in the face of challenges – in your everyday life.

Do you need some motivation to help you boost your wellbeing? Daily Sisu provides simple and sensible ways to improve your health and wellbeing based on the Nordic lifestyle in a portable handbook.
Daily Sisu offers up a range of practical everyday solutions to use at work and play from incidental exercise to cold showers and winter cycling, the easy Nordic diet, and embracing Nordic simplicity (own less, utilise considered consumption), with tips and inspirations to guide readers on how to create a healthier, and ultimately happier, way of living.

 


Rights sold:

WORLD ENGLISH: TarcherPerigee/Penguin Random House
JAPAN: Hojosha


Love, Joy, Courage

Finnish parenting is world-famous! This eagerly awaited book explains how to talk to children about love and sexuality with warm empathy.

Can my kids have a crush or fall in love? What is normal development? Curiosity, playfulness, and sensitivity are all parts of sexual development. Expressing emotions and appreciating your body and experiences are bases for building good health and selfesteem. Respect in relationships, trust, love, and enjoyment are skills that can be supported from early on. This book provides easy keys to guiding children on their path towards well-being, intimacy and happiness. It features a comprehensive step-by-step model for a child’s development based on years of experience and research in Finland. All chapters include concrete exercises.


Rights Sold:

FINLAND: Minerva (orig.)

HUNGARY: Scolar

KOREA: Blueboosebooks

RUSSIA: Bombora
UKRAINE: Nash Format


The Little Book of Bad Moods for Mothers

Let’s face it: motherhood, in all its glory, gives you so many reasons for bad moods. From stretch marks to all-consuming guilt, from toddler tantrums to teenage sulks – sometimes you wish you could put just press pause and put it all on hold, but you can’t. This taboo-breaking adult activity book encourages all mothers to vent safely, continuing the cranky path of the international bestseller “The Little Book of Bad Moods”.

Suitable for all mothers, from those with screaming babies, to those with intolerable grownup children. List the dumbest parenting advice you’ve been given, the most useless purchases, and reveal your biggest mistakes as a mother!


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Euromedia
ESTONIA: Postimees
GERMANY: Droemer Knaur
UK & Commonwealth: Bloomsbury


Things That Make One’s Heart Beat Faster

A narrative non-fiction about a Finnish writer’s trip to Japan to look for her soul mate – who lived over 1000 years ago.

Mia Kankimäki quits her job and embarks on an adventure. She travels to Kyoto to research Sei Shonagon, a Japanese writer and a lady-in-waiting who wrote about her life in the court of Heian era Japan. Mia doesn’t speak a word of Japanese, and isn’t quite accustomed to scientific research, but her endeavor produced the most wonderful book about Japan, Sei Shonagon, and a middle aged woman’s solo travels.

Despite her struggles and initial culture shock, Mia finds herself mesmerized by temples, cherry blossoms, kabuki-theater, Zen meditation, and tea rooms. She reads the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon and finds a soul sister: a modern woman who loves making lists of all things charming, annoying, elegant, or things that make one’s heart beat faster.


Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.
ESTONIA: Varrak
ITALY: Edizioni Piemme
JAPAN: Soshisha
GERMANY: btb Verlag/Random House


The Women I Think About At Night

What can a 40-something, childless woman do with her life? Hop on a plane and follow the footsteps of historical female figures: fearless explorers, gifted writers and passionate artists.

Mia Kankimäki leaves her job, sells her apartment and travels to Africa to see where Karen Blixen – the Danish author, baroness and coffee farmer – lived in the 1920s. She goes to Japan in search of a cure for her depression, and to research Yayoi Kusama, the world-renowned artist, and around the world in the footsteps of 19th century women explorers. In Italy, she spends days looking for forgotten Renaissance women painters of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. If these women could make it in the world hundreds of years ago, why couldn’t she?

The Women I Think About At Night is part travelogue and part biography: in clear prose Kankimäki writes about the lost women adventurers of history – perfect reading for adult fans of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, and anyone who’s ever wanted to travel to all the places they’ve ever read about.


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

CHINA: Winshare Publishing
CZECH REPUBLIC: Albatros Media/Motto
DENMARK: Bilgrav Publishing
ESTONIA: Varrak
FRANCE: Editions Leduc.s
GERMANY:btb Verlag/RandomHouse
ITALY: Neri Pozza
LATVIA: Zvaigzne
LITHUANIA: Gelmes Publishing
NETHERLANDS: Uitgeverij Orlando
NORWAY: Gursli Berg Forlag
RUSSIA: Eksmo Publishing
SLOVENIA: Didakta
SWEDEN: Wahlström & Widstrand
UNITED STATES:
Simon & Schuster (North American rights)


The Little Book of Bad Moods

Fed up with being positive? Try the opposite – an activity book in style of Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal. Rights sold to 32 territories!

Are you done and over with positivity and wellbeing? Here’s an adults’ activity book of negativity and ill-being! List your enemies, vent the rage and hide the book from your spouse, children and colleagues.

The Little Book of Bad Moods parodies the positivity trend and adults’ activity books in a hilarious way and is suitable for everyone who has ever held a grudge and looked for a safe way to let it out. The book includes activities like the blame game (what’s wrong with your life – and whose fault it is), getting frank (the things you should have said then and there) and crying over spilled milk (no need to forget and forgive). Let’s get cranky!


Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (Orig. publisher)
BRAZIL: Globo Livros
CHINA: Citic Press
CROATIA: Stilus knjiga
CZECH: Euromedia
DENMARK: Modtryk
ESTONIA: Eesti Raamat
FRANCE: Le Livre de Poche
GEORGIA: Sula Kauri
GERMANY: Droemer Knaur
HUNGARY: Partvonal
ICELAND: Forlagid
INDONESIA: Gramedia Pustaka Utama
ISRAEL: Kinneret-Zmora
ITALY: DeA Planeta Libri
JAPAN: President Sha
LATVIA: Zvaigzne
LITHUANIA: Baltos Lankos
NETHERLANDS: A.W. Bruna
NORWAY: Vigmostad & Bjorke
POLAND: Zysk i S-ka
PORTUGAL: Planeta
RUSSIA: Bombora (Eksmo)
SERBIA: Vulkan
SLOVAKIA: Ikar
SPAIN: Plaza & Janés/PRH
SWEDEN: HarperCollins Nordic
TAIWAN: China Times
TURKEY: Pegasus
UKRAINE: Vivat Publishing
UK & COMMONWEALTH: Bloomsbury
UNITED STATES: Gallery Books/S&S


A Wonderful Life

Meaning in Life Explained. Why Happiness is Not Enough for a Life Worth Living

Would you like to know what the meaning of your life is? In this secular era when old truths have lost their grip, more and more of us are yearning to know how our brief lives on earth could be made truly worth living. Yet a satisfactory answer has been hidden in esoteric philosophical papers and scattered psychological research. Until now.

In this engagingly insightful book, Frank Martela – one of the only academic experts who has contributed to both the philosophical and psychological research on meaning in life – takes you on a voyage through the history, philosophy, and psychology of meaningfulness and worthy living. The journey starts in the 19th century, where it is revealed why and how the Scottish author Thomas Carlyle came to be the first person in history who actually used the phrase »meaning of life.» The life stories of Carlyle and Russian author Leo Tolstoy serve as representative examples of the transformation that this book aims to guide you, the reader, through. Finally, an answer is provided to the question of meaning that is compatible with latest scientific knowledge about human nature, yet still both inspiring and actionable.


Rights sold:

WORLD ENGLISH: HarperCollins/Harper Design (orig.)
ARABIC: Sefsafa
BULGARIA: Prozoretz
CROATIA: Planetopija
ESTONIA: Rahva Raamat
FINLAND: Gummerus
FRANCE: Editions Leduc.s
GERMANY: Blessing Verlag
GREECE: Klidarithmos
ITALY: Edizioni Lindau
JAPAN: HarperCollins Japan
KOREA: Across Publishing
LATIN AMERICA: Ediciones Urano
LATVIA: Zvaigzne
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
NETHERLANDS: Ambo Anthos
NORWAY: Gursli Berg Forlag
POLAND: Czarna Owca
PORTUGAL: Editora 2020
ROMANIA: Editura Humanitas
RUSSIA: Bombora
SERBIA: Odiseja
SPAIN: Ediciones Urano (World Spanish)
TAIWAN: Crown
TURKEY: Orman Kitap

Reading material:
Full English pdf


The Soul of Sauna

The sauna was recently ranked the no.1 global wellness trend by Global Wellness Summit.

But why is sauna so important for physical and mental health?

The book by Carita Harju talks about “the Soul of Sauna”. It pays attention to both, the physical and the mental health benefits of sauna bathing. It can be recommended to anyone interested in their own health and wellness.

Some of the themes include:

  • Sauna as a Source of Happiness
  • Nature and Sauna Experience
  • The Health Effects of Sauna
  • Holistic Wellness of Sauna Bathing
  • How to Have an Authentic Finnish Sauna Experience

Read more about the Sauna experience:

Time Magazine: The Case for Sauna Bathing is Stronger Than Ever

Focus.de (in German): Forest, Sauna, Prosperity: Why Finns are the happiest people in the world

The New York Times: Saunas May Reduce Stroke Risk

(Proposal’s photography and design (c) Hanna Söderström)


Rights sold:

FINLAND: Viisas Eämä (orig.)
JAPAN: Toyo Keizai
HUNGARY: Scolar


Peace Machine

THE PEACE MACHINE: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for World Peace

Is world peace possible – or even inevitable? This book explains how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to build a more peaceful and prosperous future for all of humanity.

In 1971, a woman took her own life. Her husband, already traumatized by his experiences in the Second World War, was left to raise their eight-year-old son alone. Growing up under these difficult circumstances, the boy turned to reading to try to understand the world. As a young man, he devoted himself to the study of computer science, applying the nascent discipline of artificial intelligence to understanding the mind, language and society. He grew up to be an internationally recognized academic. In 2014, Professor Timo Honkela was diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer. At this turning point in his life, he decided that rather than giving up and waiting for his inescapable demise, he would devote his remaining time to serving the greater good.

The fruit of this effort, The Peace Machine, is a proposal for the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, language technology and pattern recognition to promoting peace in the world. In the book, Professor Honkela explains how to leverage advances in artificial intelligence to promote mutual understanding between people, provide insights on our emotions and foster justice for all. During the remainder of his life, his dearest wish is to see these concepts disseminated throughout the world. He strongly believes that positive uses for artificial intelligence exist, but whether individuals and societies take advantage of them is a matter of choice.


RIGHTS SOLD: 
FINLAND:Gaudeamus (Orig.)
ESTONIA: Koolibri
FRANCE: Éditions Saint-Simon


The Game Designer Confessions

The Game Designer Confessions: Engagement Insights from Finland’s Top Game Designers

How do top leading game designers engage players and create hit games? Read the stories of the creative minds behind games such as Angry Birds, Hay Day and Max Payne.

In 2018, gaming is a bigger industry than the music and movie industries combined, touching billions of lives globally. As an industry it hasn’t been around very long – the golden age of video games started in the ’80s. When we reached the 2000s, Finland, a nation of five million inhabitants, became a game industry superpower seemingly overnight.

From Nokia’s ubiquitous Snake to gangster-chasing Max Payne, to the social community phenomenon Habbo Hotel to Supercell’s wildly successful Clash of Clans and the most downloaded game of all time, Angry Birds, Finland’s game designers have enjoyed a streak of unequivocal triumphs that simply cannot be overlooked as a mere fluke. What is it in the Helsinki water? Game industry insiders Konsta Klemetti and Harro Grönberg interviewed the leading game designers to find out.


Rights sold (The Game Designer Confessions):
KOREA, Turning Point
RUSSIA, Alpina


Willpower, Determination, Self-Esteem

How do you turn attitude, strong will, and anger into independence and self-esteem? How to empower your child to manage challenging emotions? Aggression can be a positive driving force: all emotions are great resources if one learns to use them right. This is the Finnish “sisu” that is needed to change the world.

The book offers guidance and tips on how to prevent harm and to reinforce essential life skills and wellbeing. It features a comprehensive step-by-step model of a child’s development based on years of experience and research.

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Minerva (orig.)

ESTONIA: Varrak
GERMANY: Droemer Knaur


What Is Water?

Illustrated by Satu Kontinen

What Is Water? is an eye-opening non-fiction book for the whole family about the most important substance in the world. It examines water from four different perspectives: The Planet, Nature, The Human and The Dive. By popularizing physics, geography and history, for example, we get to know over 60 ways in which water is connected with life on Earth.


Rights sold:
FINLAND, Myllylahti (orig. publisher)
RUSSIA, KompasGuide


What is Night

Illustrated by Satu Kontinen

A bedtime book of fictional and factual stories for knowledge-hungry kids and a literary tonic for insomniacs or those afraid of the dark.

This dark and mysterious book tells gentle stories about darkness and sleep. Divided into four parts, What is the Night? draws narratives from disciplines including astronomy, nocturnal nature, the physiology of sleep, and dreams, ending with an epilogue of multilingual good night wishes.

Over four, beautifully-illustrated chapters What is the Night? spins a captivating tale of true facts interspersed with myths and legends, explaining how the moon gets its glow, to the Ancient myths of how the night was created. This is the perfect bedtime book to read to others, both old and young, or oneself.


Rights sold:
CHINA, CITIC Press
FINLAND, Myllylahti (orig. publisher)
RUSSIA, KompasGuide


 


Finnish Way

U.S. title: The Finnish Way: Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness through the Power of Sisu

Find your sisu: the Finnish concept of resilience, grit, and determination – part memoir, part guidance.

 

Forget hygge–it’s time to blow out the candles and get out into the world! Journalist Katja Pantzar did just that, taking the huge leap to move from North America to the remote Nordic country of Finland. What she discovered there transformed her body, mind and spirit. In this engaging and practical guide, she shows readers how to embrace the “keep it simple and sensible” daily practices with the power of sisu that make Finns one of the happiest populations in the world, year after year.

Topics include winter swimming, movement as medicine, forest therapy, healthy eating and the Nordic diet, and the gift of sisu: Why Finns embrace a special form of courage, grit and determination as a national virtue – and how anyone can dig deeper to survive and thrive through tough times.

In Finding Sisu discover the ways in which you too can integrate this age-old philosophy of hope and perseverance into your life, wherever you are in the world, whatever challenges you may face.

Find your courage. Find your grit. Find your sisu.


Rights sold:
BULGARIA, Skyprint
CHINA, Yeeyan Publishing
CZECH REP., Mladá Fronta
FINLAND, Siltala
FRANCE, Belfond
GERMANY, Bastei Lübbe
HUNGARY, Jaffa Kiado
ITALY, Marsilio/Sonzogno
JAPAN, Hojosha
NETHERLANDS, Kosmos
POLAND, WUJ
PORTUGAL, Marcador
RUSSIA, AST
SPAIN, Roca Editorial (WS)
THAILAND, OpenBooks
TURKEY, Mona Kitap/Alfa
UK, Hodder/Hachette (WE) (orig. publisher)
US, Tarcher Perigee/Penguin Random House

 


Sauna Cookbook

Filled with atmospheric and vibrant photos bringing the Finnish sauna culture to life, The Sauna Cookbook includes recipes ranging from moose stew with root vegetables and stuffed whitefish to cakes and pies – all cooked using the heat of the sauna. Making use of the sauna’s hot rocks, stove and hot water in cooking is a long-standing Finnish tradition, and these recipes update old traditions for the modern palate.


Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
ESTONIA, Pegasus
GERMANY, btb Luchterhand
HUNGARY, Corvina Kiadó


The Charm of Ice

The Charm of Ice tells the stories we don’t see

Pain, connection, justice.  These are some of the eight themes The Charm of Ice team spoke about with eighty star ice skaters around the world.  The Finnish trio, bestselling fiction-author Leena Lehtolainen, long-time figure skating journalist and editor-in-chief of the Finnish Figure skating magazine Kaisa Viitanen and globally renowned figure skating photographer and Sports Journalist of the Year 2016, Elina Paasonen interviewed and photographed Olympic- and World Champions and other skaters with interesting stories to tell across three different continents.

They met skaters in different conditions: off-season practices, during the ISU competitions, before and after glamorous ice shows.  The hard, daily life, the nerve-wracking championship battles and the glittery glamour of the shows were revealed to us by the intimate interviews and the masterful and captivating photos taken exclusively for this book.  Many of the skaters were surprised about the depth of the questions, many never asked of them before. A wide international community of figure skaters and coaches forms a kaleidoscopic view to the world of figure skating.

In The Charm of Ice the reader learns what kind of relationship the skater has with the ice; how you build a connection with your partner; and how one learns to endure the constant pain.  It tells how a competitor accepts being constantly judged, and the specifics a figure skater has to fight.  The Charm of Ice reveals the amount of physical strength the skaters have to achieve and the pressures they endure.  But all in all, the sport is about the charm, and the reader can experience it through their favourite skaters’ stories.

Elina Paasonen’s photographs form a unique collection, differing significantly from basic newspaper feature photos.  Paasonen, a former synchro-skating world medallist herself, can capture ‘the’ moment of the program or off-ice setting in a unique and moving way, and many skaters are fans of her work.

Interviewees in the book include: Mao Asada, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, Kiira Korpi, Daisuke Takahashi, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, and Ashley Wagner.


Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
JAPAN, Sunmark


Authors:

Leena Lehtolainen is a fiction writer who has published more than 20 works, translated into 29 languages. Figure skating has been part of Leena’s life ever since she was a little girl.

Kaisa Viitanen is a freelance journalist who has learnt to love figure skating as an adult skater and a skating mother. She is the editor-in-chief of the Finnish Taitoluistelu (Figure Skating) magazine.

Elina Paasonen is a journalist, photographer, and fourth generation skater, raised at the ice rink. Photography has become Elina’s way of contributing to the story of the fantastic sport.


Against All Odds: Leading Nokia from Near Catastrophe to Global Success

In this compelling memoir, Nokia’s legendary CEO Jorma Ollila presents a riveting account of the inner workings of the company that created the global mobile revolution. CEO from 1992 to 2006, Ollila led Nokia from near catastrophe to become the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer. He built a company where visionary thinking and courageous decisions were combined with exceptional creativity and first-rate engineering, leading to phenomenal growth.

Follow Ollila’s personal and professional journey, where you’ll learn about the fine line between stratospheric success and disastrous failure. His stories are filled with lessons about the nature of leadership, the importance of shared values, and the need for strategic thinking.

Ollila offers a uniquely clear picture of life as a CEO, with many insights into how business is conducted at the highest levels. He is especially upfront about working with his executive and management teams as well as encounters with figures such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and George Soros. He offers poignant as well as illuminating stories of hair-raising risks and huge successes, but also of poor judgment and bad decision-making.


RIGHTS SOLD:

CHINA, Shanghai Dook
ESTONIA, Äripäev
NORTH AMERICA, Maven House Press


Money and Happiness

Is money the key to our happiness? This is what is widely believed to be true. After all, the basis of modern day eco- nomics assumes that increased wealth promotes peoples’ wellbeing. Why then, in the current climate of wealth and pros- perity, do more and more people fall prey to stress, burnout, depression, alcoholism, divorce, or even suicide? Why do millions of children, young people and families feel incereasingly bad by the day?

Nars also studies the secret that women seem to hold, the one that tips the happiness scales in their favour. Money and Happiness looks for answers to many puzzling and interesting questions and reveals the real keys to true happiness – fully supported by genuine and up-to-date research.


Rights sold:

Portuguese (World), Finnish Swedish (Finland, Schildts)


Swindling Billions

The colourful history of great money fraudsters. A thrilling read of the most unscrupulous swindles of mankind published in English in March 2011!

Throughout the history of mankind unscrupulous financial crooks have swindled billions from their gullible victims. These sophisticated crimes are spreading like wildfire. Bernard Madoff’s incredible 65 billion dollar pyramid ruined thousands of Americans, including millionaire Jewish businessmen, Hollywood film personalities and cancer charities. He is the Criminal of the Century.

Ten of the world’s most interesting financial swindles are examined by Dr. Kari Nars in this unique book Swindling Billions. He reviews the nature and working methods of some of the great money fraudsters: what kind of people they really are, their thought processes, how they succeeded in cheating thousands of wealthy people, and what kind of people are liable to fall victim to such scams. Do they at all regret their nasty deeds?


 

Rights sold:

WORLD ENGLISH, Marshall Cavendish
BRAZIL (WORLD PORTUGUESE), Editora Gutenberg Ltda
CHINA (SIMPLIFIED), Law Press China
FINLAND, Tammi
GERMANY, Wiley-VCH
HUNGARY, HVG Publishing House
KOREA, Hanbit Biz
ROMANIA, Hardcover & Paperback


Tove Jansson: Work and Love

The definitive biography of one of the most unique and beloved children’s authors of the 20th century, the creator of the Moomins. Tove Jansson (1914-2001) led a long, colourful and productive life, impacting significantly the political, social and cultural history of 20th-century Finland. And while millions of children have grown up with Little My, Snufkin, Moomintroll and the many creatures of Moominvalley, the life of Jansson – daughter, friend and companion – is more touching still. This book weaves together the myriad qualities of a painter, author, illustrator, scriptwriter and lyricist from fraught beginnings through fame, war and heartbreak and ultimately to a peaceful end.


Rights sold:
CHINA, Shanghai Cai Qin Ren Culture Diffusion
DENMARK: Turbine
ESTONIA, Varrak
FINLAND, Schildts & Söderströms (Swedish)

GERMANY, Urachhaus
JAPAN, Kawade Shobo Shinsha

NORWAY, Heinesen
RUSSIA, AST
SWEDEN, Norstedts

WORLD ENGLISH, Penguin

Reading materials:
Finnish edition
English PDF
German PDF

 


Kids’ Skills in Action

Kids’ Skills is a revolutionary way of helping children to work through a range of psychological problems. Relying on an abundance of case stories gathered from around the globe, the book explains how the Kids’ Skills method can be applied to solving various problems children face.

The book starts off by presenting the fifteen steps of the Kids’ Skills program and illustrating them with the aid of real-life examples. The reader can begin executing his or her own program with a child based on the guidelines provided in the book.

The book also presents ideas for working with groups of children as well as entire school classes or even an entire school. The results of Kids’ Skills show that when children are approached in a manner emphasizing respect and cooperation, they in turn can demonstrate the desire and capacity to resolve their own problems.

Rights sold: English (Australia), German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Estonian, Russian

 


Enjoy Your Life Again

Solution-focused self-help for recovering from depression, burnout and adversity.

Recent scientific study has shown that psychotherapy is equally good or better at treating depression than medication. There are many clinically proven and effective methods of psychotherapy. One of them is solution focused therapy.

In this book internationally renowned expert of solution-focused psychotherapy, psychiatrist Ben Furman makes the methods of solution-focused therapy accessible to a wider public.

The self-help assignments of the book will help you, whatever the cause of your depression or sadness may be, to recover and to regain your ability to enjoy your life again. The assignments are however not only useful for those who are unhappy but everyone interested in improving the quality of their life.


I am Proud of You!

In this book the renowned expert of solution-focused psychotherapy, developer of Kids’ Skills method, psychiatrist Ben Furman makes the method accessible to a wider public.

Parents, grandparents, caretakers and teachers will all benefit from Dr Furman’s unique problem-solving method for children. Kids’ Skills has achieved great popularity around the globe, its positivity winning over adults and children alike.

Rights sold: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Japanese, Norwegian