In the Dark I Can Be Yours

Salla Simukka

Original title: Matalapaine/Korkeapaine

Author: Salla Simukka

Published: 2021

Publisher: Tammi

Genre: Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Pages: 138

Reading material:

Full English translation

If your love can only be a secret, will it last?

  • Rights sold to Actes Sud in France!
  • Salla Simukka is Finland’s most internationally bestselling author with the Snow White Trilogy sold in 52 territories!

Varpu and Saga are two sixteen-year-old girls that are forced to stay in their hometown for the summer. After just one drunken kiss, prejudice and identity are shattered and it’s revealed how, behind the facade, everyone hurts and loves the same. In The Dark I Can be Yours is a touching and beautiful title about great emotions in the summer.

The authentic characters are supported by Simukka’s light and airy narrative. Each side of the book tells one girl’s story, which effortlessly melts together into a summer of love, insecurities, and the exploration of two young people.

In the Dark I Can Be Yours portrays queer love with airy light writing to the otherwise bittersweet undertones of the story. The ending is left hanging in the air in a way that makes you both thirst for more and think that every word in the novel was in the right place. A beautiful masterpiece from Simukka

Siniset Helmet blog, Finland

Download reading materials

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Tammi
FRANCE: Actes Sud jeunesse

Video

Foreign covers

About author

Salla Simukka

Salla Simukka is the author of the international success story The Snow White Trilogy: rights are sold in 53 territories and in Hollywood. She has written several novels for young readers and her accolades include the Topelius Prize 2013 and the Finland Prize 2013. Simukka has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award  every year 2021–2024. Where It All Begins, published in 2022, is her first novel for adults and in 2024 she started a collaboration with JP Ahonen on a middle grade novel.

Previously Simukka has written book reviews for the newspapers, translated all kinds of texts into Finnish, worked as an editor at a literary magazine and as a screenwriter for a popular TV show for young audiences.  She has also been working on the programme of Turku Book Fair in 2017–2020.

Bibliography


2024, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Salla Simukka

The Secret Staircase


2022, Literary Fiction

Salla Simukka

Where It All Begins


2021, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

In the Dark I Can Be Yours


2020, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

Detained


2018, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

Turn off the Lights! Turn on the Lights!


2016, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Salla Simukka

Sisterland


2014, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

As Black as Ebony


2013, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

As Red as Blood


2013, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

As White as Snow


2012, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

Elsewhere


2012, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Salla Simukka

Without a Trace