Finnish Way

Katja Pantzar

Original title: Finnish Way

Author: Katja Pantzar

Published: 2018

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (UK); TarcherPerigee (US)

Genre: Personal Growth & Lifestyle

Pages: 320

Reading material:

English edition

Forget hygge - it’s time to blow out the candles and get out into the world!

Journalist Katja Pantzar took a 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 makes 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.

I learned in this book about this Finnish concept called sisu: it means being tough, which I find quite inspiring. Don’t give up, be resilient, get on with life, challenge yourself. There’s a lot of practical stuff about going into the forest, spending time outside. What really appealed to me was sisu – the idea of something that encourages you to be a bit ballsy and a bit punchy as well as buy the candles and the blankets. The idea that there’s actually a word for it. Instead of ‘I can’t’, or ‘I won’t’, how about, ‘how can I?

Sophie Kinsella, author of the bestselling series Shopaholic

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Rights sold:
UK: Hodder & Stoughton; US: TarcherPerigee
BULGARIA: SKY PRINT 04 Ltd
CHINA: Yeeyan Publishing
CZECH REPUBLIC: Mlada Fronta
ESTONIA: Rahva Raamat
FILM & TV: V Street
FINLAND: Siltala Publishing
FRANCE: Belfond
GERMANY: Bastei Lübbe GmbH & Co. KG
HUNGARY: Jaffa Publishing Ltd.
INDONESIA: Gramedia Pustaka Utama
ITALY: Marsilio
JAPAN: Hojosha
LITHUANIA: BALTO
NETHERLANDS: Kosmos Uitgevers
POLAND: Jagiellonian University Press
PORTUGAL: Marcador
RUSSIA: AST Publishers
SLOVAKIA: Vydavatelstvo Motyl
SPAIN: Roca Juvenil
TAIWAN: My House
THAILAND: Openbooks Thailand
TURKEY: Mona Kitap
UNITED KINGDOM: Hodder & Stoughton
VIETNAM: Omega

Foreign covers

About author

Katja Pantzar

Katja Pantzar –  Katja Pantzar is a Helsinki-based writer and journalist who swims in the Baltic Sea year round. Raised in Canada, with stints in New Zealand and England, she is the author of The Finnish Way (Penguin Random House/2018), a bestselling non-fiction book about Nordic well-being, winter swimming and sisu (resilience) that has been translated into 24 languages. Her second book on sisu, Everyday Sisu: Tapping into Finnish Fortitude for a Happier, More Resilient Life (Penguin Random House/2022) explores through expert interviews and research-based information how we can better support our mental and physical health while taking care of each other and our planet. Everyday Sisu has also been published in Japanese, Thai, and Indonesian. Pantzar’s work has been widely covered around the world in media ranging from Le Figaro, Le Monde, and El Paísto Vogue the Washington Post and the New York Review of Books. . She is also the author of three mini-guides to the Finnish capital, including 100 things to do in Helsinki (Siltala/2024).

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Bibliography


2024, Personal Growth & Lifestyle

Katja Pantzar

The Power of Hot and Cold. From Sauna to Sea: The Finnish Way to a Happy, Healthy Life


2022, Personal Growth & Lifestyle

Katja Pantzar

Everyday Sisu: Tapping into Finnish Fortitude for a Happier, More Resilient Life


2018, Personal Growth & Lifestyle

Katja Pantzar

Finnish Way


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