The Invisibles

Sanna Isto

Original title: Näkymättömät

Author: Sanna Isto

Published: 2024

Publisher: Tammi

Genre: Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Pages: 293

Reading material:

English sample February 2024

English synopsis and praise sheet

Finnish manuscript


A haunted house. An Invisible boy. A summer of mystery and self-discovery

Nominated for the Young Aleksis Award 2024!

✓ Grounded fantasy for the 12+ audience

✓ Nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2023 and Topelius Prize 2024

✓ Sanna Isto is a two-time winner of the Arvid Lydecken award (2012 & 2017) and was twice nominated for the Finlandia Prize (2017 & 2023)

Spending her vacation away from the city and her friends was not what Pii had in mind for the summer she had been eagerly waiting for. And then even the holiday house turns out to be strange and peculiar. Who is the boy who moves around the house as if it were his own, and why can't anyone else see him?

Pii's experience of being an outsider turns into a strength, because she sees things that others don't notice. Soon she finds herself in the middle of a secret that overshadows the sunny idyll of the small village. Are the thefts of vacation homes and the unsolved death that happened half a year ago related? And what does the mysterious boy in the green cap have to do with all this?

Pii has to look for answers deep below the surface, and while diving for them, she also has to face herself. A vacation Pii expected to be boring turns into a journey of self-discovery, and in the end nothing - not even the ghosts - is what it seemed at first.

A wonderful and surprising description of the need to be seen and the pain points of family and sibling relationships.

Finlandia Award Selection Board

Download reading materials

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)

About author

Sanna Isto

Sanna Isto is a Berlin based children’s and YA author with a master´s degree from the university of Helsinki. Her stories, rooted in everyday life, are often combined with something strange and out of the ordinary, which allows us to contemplate the world  from a new and intriguing angle.

Bibliography


2024, Young Adult (13 or 14+)

Sanna Isto

The Invisibles