It’s June: time to enjoy the fair weather, and to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community! For the occasion, here comes a selection of our titles that give the community broad representation.
Let’s dive in!
TROLL by Johanna Sinisalo
“A punk version of The Hobbit” – USA Today
An intoxicatingly strange cult novel about queer desire and wildness, as a man unwittingly disrupts his life by opening his home to a peculiar troll.
Out in a new English edition with Pushkin Press (2024).
Mikael, a young gay photographer, finds a small, man-like creature in the courtyard of his apartment block. It is a young troll, familiar from Scandinavian mythology: a demonic, wild beast. And it is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. Supposedly extinct, today it is regarded as a hairy, cuddly toy by Nordic children. Mikael gives the troll a name, Pessi, and takes him home and hides him. It is the beginning of a chain of events he never could have expected, and soon love – and trouble – are knocking on his door.
HOW WE MET YOUR MOTHER by Kaj Korkea-aho
Nominated for the 2024 Finlandia Prize
An autobiographical story about a gay couple’s journey to co-parenting
After eight years together, Kaj and Niko, living in Helsinki, decide to try to become parents. They start looking for a mother for their child, but the search for a co-parent seems impossible at first. What has to be right so that one could dare trust a complete stranger? Whose sperm cells should be used? How do you plan the future of a family that is outside the norms, in a society that is still coded heterosexually?
Kaj Korkea-aho’s autobiographical text about how three parents had a child is irresistibly touching, painful, and humorous. It bears traces of all forms of expression mastered by Korkea-aho – novel, podcast, blog, and drama – and can also be used as a kind of handbook for others in the same life situation. The book grabs the reader like a baby with its little hand and doesn’t let go until the book has been finished and the wonder of life has become a fact.
WHERE IT ALL BEGINS by Salla Simukka
Autopsy of a relationship – literary suspense at its best!
Award-winning illustrator Nova moves with her partner, Isla, into a dream house in the middle of a forest. However, the calm and quiet of the light in a faraway region is not enough to fix the cracks in the relationship.
After the breakup, Nova isolates herself in her office to illustrate old Finnish horror stories, which unexpectedly reveal a link to the new home. Isla, in turn, does not seem willing to accept the situation but carries on in the shared home as if nothing has happened. When reality seems to distort, the confused Nova comes face-to-face with the sorrows of the past. In what does one dare trust?
A gradually darkening story about love – where it begins, what it survives, and how it ends.
CARAMEL CATASTROPHE by Ulla Onerva
A sparkling and warmly touching rainbow novel about Melli, who unwittingly gets caught up in the whirlwind of romance.
Caramel Catastrophy is the second part of Ulla Onerva’s witty entertainment trilogy, the first part of which, The Cotton Candy Dilemma, was received with enthusiasm. The Quirky Romantics insightfully connects the romantic classics of Jane Austen and Charlotte and Emily Brontë to the present day and is perfect for anyone who refuses to hide their love of romantic books.
Melli, who loves dark stories, defends romantic literature in the Club of Quirky Romantics founded by her friend Emma, even though she has decided to stay away from relationship messes. However, emotions do not listen to reason when Melli experiences an ever deeper connection with her secret online friend Vita, who has been her support during difficult times. The final year of high school is also disrupted by the arrival of the quick-witted Bea, who joins the Quirky Romantics and turns Melli’s head. To her horror, Melli realizes that disaster is inevitable…or is a happy ending waiting, after all?
Enjoy the reads, and explore our backlist for more. And of course, HAPPY PRIDE!🏳️🌈
Loukko by 
