We are happy to share, that the Finnish rights to A HEART WITH TWO MINDS by Ann-Luise Bertell has been sold to sold to Karisto, an imprint of Otava Publishing Company! In addition, they have acquired the rights to the first book in her upcoming new trilogy. The deal was negotiated by Noora Al-Ani at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.

Ann-Luise Bertell, one of Finland’s most powerful literary voices, delivers a sensual, compact epic that pulses with longing, resilience, and the quiet heroism of everyday life. A HEART WITH TWO MINDS is a story of forbidden connection, haunting memory, and the fierce complexity of love in wartime.

“Skuggas is a captivating historical novel by a masterful storyteller and distinctive author. The airy yet straightforward narrative draws the reader deep into the feelings of the main character, Ruti, and into the time and community described. The text is beautiful and emotional without being the slightest bit saccharine. The story of forbidden love is compelling, and the author has a strong, distinctive voice and an irresistible charm in her writing.

Ann-Luise Bertell is a masterful storyteller and a writer with a unique voice. Her language is beautiful, her characterizations precise. She has the ability to write emotionally without being mawkish, and with originality without being difficult. Her sentences have an irresistible charm, drawing the reader deep into the story from the very first lines. Karisto is delighted and honored to offer this distinguished Finland-Swedish author a new beginning as a storyteller for the general public in the Finnish-language market.”

— Silka Raatikainen, Executive Editor at Karisto

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“What a fantastic love story!”

“A burning hot tale of passion with a surprising ending.” – Aftonbladet

Rut had loved two. Or loved. Loves. She had also loved her children, both the living and the dead, her parents, her grandmother, perhaps a friend or two. But two men.

The Continuation War rages in Finland, “a corner, one of the corners of the world”. Rut Blom is more than 40 years old, mother of three, and a farmer on Skuggas, a farm in Ostrobothnia that was her inheritance and from which she has never left. Her husband Verner and their 18-year-old son are fighting at the front line in Karelia and her unrest is constant. She finds it difficult to cope with all the work on the fields. A Soviet prisoner of war, Lieutenant Anton Demchenko from Ukraine, comes to her aid. He speaks the language of the enemy, but to Rut it sounds like a song.

Ann-Luise Bertell has secured her place as a great storyteller with her sensual, historical novels. Her novels are often set in her native area of Ostrobothnia, are short in the number of pages but with an epic breadth. A Heart With Two Minds depicts an intense half a year in one human’s life.