Happy Publication Day, BECHI!

A groundbreaking debut novel from one of the most interesting authors of the generation. This is the story of a simultaneously close and destructive relationship between a mother and a daughter, and of a desire to belong somewhere while also wanting to break free.

Praise:

“Beneath the beautifully rolling prose and sensual metaphors there are angry, cleansing currents.—Bechi is a work that rejects sentimentality in describing the relationship between a mother and a daughter in this world. — Despite its big themes, Bechi is very polished and dense.… As a whole, Bechi is a strong debut and Koko Hubara a welcome addition into the field of Finnish fiction.” – Helsingin Sanomat Newspaper, 18.4.2021

”The storytelling is vivid and keeps you in its grip…” – Suomen Kuvalehti Magazine, 17.4.2021

Download English sample and synopsis

Bechi is in her thirties, and lives in Helsinki, where she is trying to finish her master’s thesis. Her mother Shoshana is a writer of Yemeni Jewish heritage. Her autobiographical novel shocked readers in Finland, but she has also burned all the bridges between her family in Israel.

When Bechi tells her mother about her pregnancy, many years of tension come to a head. How can two people remember everything so differently? More importantly, what are the things that they would rather forget?

About the Author

Koko Hubara (MSSc., 1984) is the founder of Brown Girls Media (Ruskeat Tytöt Media), the first media for people of colour in Finland. She is the first editor-in-chief of colour in the history of Finland. She is also a freelance journalist, essayist, translator and creative writing teacher. Hubara is a native of Vantaa, with origins in Vyborg in Carelia, Kemijärvi in Lapland, Israel and Yemen. Her debut work, the essay collection Brown Girls (Ruskeat Tytöt – Tunne-esseitä) was released in 2017, and has been translated into Swedish. Hubara has won many awards for her antiracist work in the Finnish context. Bechi is Hubara’s first novel.

Reading materials:
English sample and synopsis

Rights sold:
FINLAND (orig. Otava, 2021)
FINLAND in Swedish
SWEDEN: Förlaget

About author


Koko Hubara

Koko Hubara (MSSc., 1984) is the founder of Brown Girls Media (Ruskeat Tytöt Media), the first for us by us media for people of color in Finland. She is the first editor-in chief of color in the history of Finland. She is also a freelance journalist, essayist, translator and creative writing teacher. Hubara is a native of Vantaa, with origins in Vyborg, Karelia; Kemijärvi, Lapland, Israel and Yemen. Her debut work, the essay collection Brown Girls (Ruskeat Tytöt – Tunne-esseitä), was released in 2017, and has been translated into Swedish. Hubara has won many awards for her antiracist work in the Finnish context. She is working on her PhD on narratives of Brown daughters of White mothers at the University of Turku. Bechi is Hubara’s first novel.

Bibliography


2021, Literary Fiction

Bechi

Koko Hubara

EALA Spring 2021 Fiction Rights Guide

We are happy and proud to share our spring 2021 Fiction Rights Guide and announce amazing new titles from bestselling crime to award-winning literary fiction and heartwarming feel-good!

Browse our full Spring 2021 Fiction Rights Guide here.

 


Cargo by A.M. Ollikainen
Winner of National Crime Novel Competition

The first in a fast-paced and addictive Nordic Noir series. A.M. Ollikainen is Finland’s Lars Kepler!

A cargo container is found in Helsinki with a dead body inside.The container and the property where it’s found belongs to one of the most notorious businessmen in Finland. As Police Commissioner Paula Pihlaja begins to investigate the case, traces lead back to the businessman’s family, revealing decades of suspicious business ventures in Africa.

Reading materials coming in April

 

Bad Blood (Jessica Niemi #3) by Max Seeck
New York Times Bestselling Author
A prominent business executive Eliel Rosenström is found brutally murdered in his home in Helsinki. The murder motive become less clear, when the police finds out that the murderer had other targets as well. The only clue the police has is a photo of Rosenström with three other men, whose faces are all scratched off. Who are the faceless men, and why can’t the police identify them? Are they other victims? Or something more sinister?

Full English coming in September

 

Still Waters Run Deep by Elina Backman
A standalone sequel to All the King’s Men
Is evil lurking beneath the calm waters? Three young men are making a documentary film about a mystical hermit, living in the Isle of Sheep in Helsinki. First one of them disappears, then another one. When one of them is found dead in the nearby nature reserve, the police becomes involved.

Download the English synopsis from here

 

 Bechi by Koko Hubara

A groundbreaking debut novel from one of the most interesting authors of the generation. This is the story of a simultaneously close and destructive relationship between a mother and a daughter, and of a desire to belong somewhere while also wanting to break free.

Bechi is in her thirties, and lives in Helsinki, where she is trying to finish her master’s thesis. Her mother Shoshana is a writer of Yemeni Jewish heritage. Her autobiographical novel shocked readers in Finland, but she has also burned all the bridges between her family in Israel.

When Bechi tells her mother about her pregnancy, many years of tension come to a head. How can two people remember everything so differently? More importantly, what are the things that they would rather forget?

English sample coming soon!

 

Irrational Things by Saara Turunen

Autofictive story of love, death and life between two countries. Turunen’s funny, witty and melancholic voice examines the contradiction of sense and sensibility.

What if you are in love with a good man – a man you have always wanted to fall in love with? But what if this man lives in one country and you in another? Should you be sensible and leave the man to be free and independent? Or should you follow your heart, burn the bridges behind, and go after him?

Download 100-page English sample & synopsis from here

 

Homestead by Ann-Luise Bertell
Finlandia Prize and Runeberg Award Nominee 2020
When Elof is ten years old, his father dies, leaving him and his little brother Ivar alone at the mercy of their relatives. Elof learns that he must never show fear, especially not in front of others and never to his wife Olga, whom he never really gets close to. Pride is the most important thing to Elof, as is their homestead, Heiman, which is all the family has ever truly owned.

Download English sample and synopsis from here or request the Swedish ms

Arctic Mirage by Terhi Kokkonen
Winner of the Debut Novel competition 2020

Literary mystery with a “Twin Peaks” vibe set in Finnish Lapland.

Karo and Risto go on holiday in Lapland to give themselves time to fix their stressful marriage. However, on their way back home, they’re involved in a car accident and are subsequently forced to stay at the only accommodation in the area; Hotel Arctic Mirage. Once inside, they find that the hotel has a rather strange atmosphere and it starts to have a peculiar effect on them. Karo begins to doubt her own memories and tries her best to escape the snowbound hotel holiday village whereas Risto starts to feel strange and refuses to leave.

Download English sample and synopsis from here

 

My Friend Natalia by Laura Lindstedt
US Debut in March 23rd, 2021 by W.W. Norton/Liveright

A bold, and brave novel about young woman’s sexuality, the power of narration, and identity.

Natalia starts to see a therapist to help solve the problems in her sex life. It is clear from the beginning that she is not going to play by the rules of the therapy. The weekly sessions combine art, philosophy, literature, childhood memories, and erotic experiences as a method of treatment, and slowly they make Natalia lose all her inhibitions. She starts to enjoy the therapy – maybe too much?

Download the full English pdf from here

 

Charming Duke by Sara Medberg

Bridgerton meets Jane Austen in 19th century Sweden

The lady of Blackthorn Castle, beautiful Arabella, has been widowed and fallen into poverty. In the midst of all adversity, she is encouraged by Jane Austen’s literary heroines. However, the shadows of the past won’t leave Arabella alone: she encounters a dazzling English duke who claims to know a fatal secret about Arabella’s late spouse.

Download the English synopsis from here – sample coming soon