Aki Ollikainen

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST and INHERITED LAND nominated for Eeva Joenpelto award!

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We are thrilled to share that THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST by Aki Ollikainen as well as INHERITED LAND by Maria Turtschaninoff have both been nominated for the Eeva Joenpelto award!

The Eeva Joenpelto Award is given out by the city of Lohja biyearly to a work written in a national language. The Award is worth 10 000 euros and the winner is announced on the 8th of June.

The jury said of THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST:

“Aki Ollikainen’s polished, sharp and concise language enchants in the recognisably written novel THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. The thought-out structure of the historical novel captivates the reader to wait when and how the two panels of the narrative cross. The description of the Northern nature and the mentality of the people is sharp, the author’s eye kindly understanding, and the touch is a joyfully humoristic one, but not at all mocking.”

And of INHERITED LAND:

“Maria Turtschaninoff’s skillfully built episodic novel INHERITED LAND describes via the history and inhabitants of the Ostrobothnian Nevabacka farm how Finns and people in general have been tightly tied to the nature of the mythical and real world, and its circulation, and how at times this connection has been lost but then found again. The changes in different styles and narrative voices keep the reader engrippped through the journey through the centuries. The novel touches, enchants, and nourishes the soul of the reader.”

We are so happy, congrats to Aki and Maria!

The rights to THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST are still available in e.g. France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Latvia…

Download the English materials for THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST here!

And the rights to INHERITED LAND are still free in e.g. Greece, Japan, Spain, Portugal…

Download the English materials for INHERITED LAND here!

KRISTUKSEN TOINEN TULEMINEN
Siltala, 2022, 180 pp.

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Siltala (orig.)
HUNGARY: Polar

Reading material:
English sample & synopsis

 

 

ARVEJORD
Förlaget, 2022, 371 pp.

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Förlaget (orig. Finland-Swedish), Tammi (Finnish), SWEDEN: Förlaget
AZERBAIJAN: Alatoran
BULGARIA: Izida
CHINA: Rentian Ulus
CROATIA: HENA COM
CZECHIA: ARGO
DENMARK: Alpha Forlag
ESTONIA: Rahvat Raamat
FRANCE: Éditions Paulsen
GERMANY: Rowohlt
HUNGARY: L’Harmattan
ISRAEL: Hakibbutz Hameuchad – Sifriat Poalim Publishing House
ITALY: Bompiani
NETHERLANDS: Uitgeverij Atlas Contact
NORWAY: Bonnier Norsk Forlag
POLAND: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie
ROMANIA: Editura Univers
TURKEY: Timas
UKRAINE: Old Lion Publishing House
WORLD ENGLISH: Pushkin Press

Reading material:
Swedish manuscript
Finnish translation
English translation

About author


Aki Ollikainen

Aki Ollikainen has studied social policy at the University of Jyväskylä and is a trained photographer. He has previously worked as an editor and, among other things, at a metal workshop, a library, and a post office. His debut novel White Hunger received the Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize for Best Debut Novel of 2012 and was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. Ollikainen lives in Lohja with his wife and two children. Aki and his wife Milla form the pseudonym A.M. Ollikainen and have jointly published two crime novels.

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About author


Maria Turtschaninoff

Maria Turtschaninoff is known for crafting lyrical, historically inspired fantasy stories starring strong female protagonists. In addition to J.R.R. Tolkien, she counts Philip Pullman, Ursula K. Le Guin and C.S. Lewis among her favorite authors. She is a two-time winner of the Society of Swedish Literature Prize, winner of the Swedish YLE Literature Prize, winner of the Thank You for the Book Award, a nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2020-2024), and winner of the 2014 Finlandia Junior Prize. In 2024, Maria Turtschaninoff won the Eeva Joenpelto Literary Prize (10,000 euro award) for her literary masterpiece Tangled Roots.

Her Red Abbey Chronicles YA trilogy has been sold into 30 languages, while her first adult novel Tangled Roots has been sold to 23 territories. Maria has a Master of Arts in human ecology and works full-time as a writer.

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Hungarian rights sold for THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST!

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We are thrilled to announce that THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST by internationally bestselling author Aki Ollikainen has just been sold to Hungary pre-publication, and the lucky publisher is Polar! The deal was closed by Sten-Erik Tammemäe at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.

Polar are a publishing house specializing in publishing Scandinavian and Northern European literature. Their authors include Karen Blixen, Vigdis Hjorth, Pirkko Saisio, August Strindberg, Leena Krohn, Dag Solstad, Hjalmar Söderberg, Andrus Kivirähk, etc.

Download the English materials for THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST here!

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
by Aki Ollikainen
Siltala, September 2022, 180 pp.

While on his rural tour in autumn 1914, the tenor singer Aarne Oden coughs up a life-threatening amount of blood, and he is diagnosed with tuberculosis. He is sent off to the tuberculosis sanatorium, the kingdom of those hanging on to life by just a thread.

At the same time, in a remote village in the north, the preacher and landowner Kustaa Anttola is preparing for the Michaelmas prayer proceedings. However, the preparations get interrupted when he finds the local madman Stye-Viljaami drinking in his barn. In his anger, Kustaa gives Viljami a heavy beating. During the prayers, Kustaa’s life is forever altered as Christ appears behind the window to listen to his sermon.

Aarne, who has recovered at the sanatorium, also finds himself in the north, supervising the transportation of munitions of the Russian Empire, from the coasts of the Arctic Ocean to the northernmost railroad station of the Empire. When spring comes, Aarne meets Christ on the shore of a wild lake and finds that the two have more in common than he thought. And soon, Kustaa Anttola finds two Christs on his land.

How do people see themselves when they’re forced to give up what they have constructed their identity on, and illness becomes the characteristic trait defining them? And how does one see their loved ones, marked by death and illness? What happens to a righteous preacher when the long-expected Christ arrives before him in the form of the creature most wretched?

Aki Ollikainen’s latest novel grows larger in size thanks to its lyrical language. The individual scenes are like expressionist paintings reaching over the visible world.

KRISTUKSEN TOINEN TULEMINEN
Siltala, September 2022, 180 pp.

READING MATERIALS
English sample and synopsis

RIGHTS SOLD:
FINLAND: Siltala (orig.)
HUNGARY: Polar

About author


Aki Ollikainen

Aki Ollikainen has studied social policy at the University of Jyväskylä and is a trained photographer. He has previously worked as an editor and, among other things, at a metal workshop, a library, and a post office. His debut novel White Hunger received the Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize for Best Debut Novel of 2012 and was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. Ollikainen lives in Lohja with his wife and two children. Aki and his wife Milla form the pseudonym A.M. Ollikainen and have jointly published two crime novels.

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Bibliography


2022, Literary Fiction

The Second Coming of Christ

Aki Ollikainen


2018, Literary Fiction

A Pastoral

Aki Ollikainen


2015, Literary Fiction

A Tale of Darkness

Aki Ollikainen


2013, Literary Fiction

White Hunger

Aki Ollikainen

Related news

New Sales For Aki Ollikainen And Johanna Sinisalo!

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We are thrilled to announce that A PASTORAL by internationally bestselling author Aki Ollikainen has just been sold to Catalan, and the lucky publisher is Nits Blanques ! This is the 6th language for A PASTORAL and the 17th in total for Aki! The deal was closed by Elsa Lindström at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.

Download the material for A PASTORAL here!

Download Aki’s newest title, THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, here!

 

We are also happy to announce that Norwegian audio and ebook rights for BIRDBRAIN by Finlandia-Prize winning superstar of Finnish speculative fiction Johanna Sinisalo have been picked up by Cappelen Damm. The deal was closed by Anna Kappauf at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.

Download the material for BIRDBRAIN here!

Download Johanna’s newest title, THE STORM FLUTE, here!

 

A PASTORAL by Aki Ollikainen
Literary Fiction

An idyllic midsummer’s day in Eastern Finland. People falling in love and taking care of each other, and nature sublime in its beauty. But darkness lurks around the corner…

Aki Ollikainen’s picturesque third novel is aglow with the rural idyll of a summer’s day and the fantasies of people wandering in the midsummer’s night. During a single day in Eastern Finland, the realities of multiple generations meet, time flows through itself, and strange things occur. And normal things occur as well. Two young people fall in love, two slightly older ones are struggling with their relationship, and two even older people have found a sublime tranquility in each other.

However, the magical world of A PASTORAL is also cruel and unpredictable. Dark clouds loom over the blue skies, a monstrous wolf wanders in the shadows and mocking ravens swing on a branch. And when the morning finally dawns, the ravenous death has raged amid the idyll.

 

BIRDBRAIN by Johanna Sinisalo
Fantasy & Science Fiction

Young Finnish couple, Jyrki and Heidi, go on the hiking trip of a lifetime in Australasia with Heart of Darkness as reading material. To Jyrki’s great surprise, his girlfriend Heidi demands to come with him, frightened by the idea of several months of solitude. The trip gradually turns into a tortuous thriller with belongings disappearing and, even more mysteriously, reappearing. The travellers come to be at the mercy of untamed nature Birdbrain describes Western people’s desperate longing for somewhere unspoilt and primitive with biting irony. At the same time, it reveals the dark side of this longing, showing it to be an insatiable desire to control, invade and destroy.. Birdbrain reveals the dark side of the explorer’s desire: the insatiable need to control, to invade and leave one’s mark on the landscape. But what happens when nature starts to fight back?

A PASTORAL

Rights sold: FINLAND: Siltala (orig.); ARMENIA: Guitank; FRANCE: Éditions Héloïse d’Ormesson; HUNGARY: Polar; POLAND: ArtRage, SPAIN (Catalan): Nits Blanques

 

 

BIRDBRAIN

Rights sold: FINLAND: Teos (orig.); FRANCE (Actes Sud), NORWAY (Cappelen Damm), UK (Peter Owen)

About author


Aki Ollikainen

Aki Ollikainen has studied social policy at the University of Jyväskylä and is a trained photographer. He has previously worked as an editor and, among other things, at a metal workshop, a library, and a post office. His debut novel White Hunger received the Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize for Best Debut Novel of 2012 and was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. Ollikainen lives in Lohja with his wife and two children. Aki and his wife Milla form the pseudonym A.M. Ollikainen and have jointly published two crime novels.

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About author


Johanna Sinisalo

Johanna Sinisalo (b. 1958) is a Finlandia Prize-winning superstar of Finnish speculative fiction. In addition to her nine novels, she has also written short fiction and film and television screenplays. Her works have been translated into twenty languages.

Sinisalo has won several literary prizes also abroad, such as the 2004 James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the 2017 Prometheus Award, and was nominated for the Nebula Award in 2008, the Prix Escapades in 2012, and the Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire in 2017. In 2022, Johanna Sinisalo was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal for services to Finnish literature.

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