Three Ahlback Agency authors nominated for Lapland Literature award

We are happy to announce that three authors represented by the Ahlback Agency have been nominated for the Lapland Literature award! The nominees are Pine Bark by Tommi Kinnunen, The Investigations of a Certain Cat by Katja Kettu and Firstborn by Maria Peura.

The Lapland Literature Award is a prize awarded jointly by the libraries of Lapland to a Finnish-language work on a topic related to Lapland or written by an author from Lapland. With the award, libraries want to highlight high-quality literature from Lapland. The award ceremony, open to all, will take place on Libraries Day 19.3.2025 at Kolari Library.

Sculptor Kirsi Kaulanen selects the winner of the Lapland Literature Prize from six finalists.

Pine Bark by Tommi Kinnunen

2024 Finlandia Prize nominee in Fiction! Sold over 60,000 copies!

A densely atmospheric and arrestingly written novel about women’s fates in times of war, the difficulty of giving up, and how the proximity of death can change a person

A person cannot return to being who they once were without knowing who they have been.

In 2001, three siblings – Martti and twin sisters Eeva and Marja – meet in a small village in Northern Finland. Their mother Laina, an old woman who has been through the Second World War, is dying and the children have gathered to arrange the funeral. Even though the siblings have always been on good terms, Martti has always felt aloof, the odd man out. All of them reminisce about their childhood, but Martti remembers things slightly differently than the sisters.

As the novel progresses, the readers are transported through the decades and through Laina’s story, culminating in the Soviet partisan attack during the summer of 1944 that irrevocably changed Laina’s life. She has refused to recall the events and, at the same time, has denied her children the opportunity of remembering and recovering. “One can only talk about men’s war, as the women’s war is soundless and forbidden.”

As his mother’s death grows nearer, Martti reaches out to connect with his siblings and attempts to fill in the gaps in the story, but is it already too late?

The Investigations of a Certain Cat by Katja Kettu

Katja Kettu’s stunning novel spins through ages whilst surrendering to the wilderness of nature and the deep yearning for offspring.

Can one find solace and meaning in life from the past once the future no longer exists?

An Author has a miscarriage and loses their ability to speak and write. From the Investigative Bureau of Heavens, a Detective is sent to the scene, but something goes awry. Soon, in the corner of the room, there appears Cat who starts examining a mysterious diary that once belonged to the Author’s Great Grandmother.

When a new life has been lost, the Author turns their gaze to the past and to the age-old words of creation in the old Finnish outskirts. The one who knows them, Great Grandmother, has the power of healers. The Great Grandmother’s diary sheds light on birth and death, love towards children, and the strength of heritage in one’s blood.

Combining autofiction and elements of magical realism, Katja Kettu’s latest novel also sheds light on the history of the Finnish frontiers.

Firstborn by Maria Peura

A heartrending autobiographical novel about one’s own child being placed in an institution and about feeling out of place as a child

The author starts putting together the story of her firstborn child – a child whose ill-being and problematic behavior eventually led to him being placed in a child protection institution. Only now, when everything is okay, does the author dare to put her own distress and guilt into words. “What mistakes did I make? How was I trespassed against and why has my child ended up broken because of me being broken?

Maria Peura’s autobiographical novel is a relentlessly honest and lyrically beautiful depiction of the cycles of trauma, of the effects of violence, and the chance for light and survival.

Pine Bark
Kaarna, Tommi Kinnunen, 2024, 205 p.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
ESTONIA: Varrak
JAPAN: Shinchosha

The Investigations of a Certain Cat
Erään kissan tutkimuksia, Katja Kettu, 2023, 380 p.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
CZECHIA: Argo
DENMARK: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ESTONIA: Koolibri
GERMANY: Weissbooks
HUNGARY: Gondolat
ITALY: Mondadori
NORWAY: Pax Forlag
POLAND: Swiat Ksiazki
ROMANIA: Humanitas
SWEDEN: Albert Bonniers

Firstborn
Esikoinen, Maria Peura, 2023, 320 p.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

About author


Katja Kettu

Katja Kettu is an acclaimed and award-winning writer with a strong, unique voice from Northern Finland. Originally from Rovaniemi, Lapland, she graduated from the Turku Academy of Arts in 2001 as an animation director and has also studied in the University of Tampere and in the National Film and Television School in the UK. She has worked as a columnist for numerous Finnish newspapers and magazines.

Her debut novel Surujenkerääjä (2005) was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize and won the Tiiliskivi Prize, but her breakthrough came with The Midwife (orig. Kätilö, 2011), which won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize, the Runeberg Prize and the Thank You for the Book Medal. The rights for the novel have been sold to 19 countries, it has sold more than 160,000 copies in Finland, and in 2015 it was adapted into a film.

To date, she has published five novels, written or edited two collections of short stories, authored a graphic novel, edited a fiction/non-fiction book on women’s experiences with sexual harassment and violence, and a biography of Ismo Alanko, a Finnish musician. In addition, she has collaborated with photographer Meeri Koutaniemi and documentarist Maria Seppälä on a book and a TV series about Finnish emigrants in North America and their relationships with the Ojibwe people. Outside of literature, Kettu has directed, written or helped produce 10 animations and been a singer in the punk band Confusa.

Kettu’s works have been characterized as “Laplandic magical realism”. Kettu is meticulous in the research for her works and she is interested in microhistory, especially the fates of women caught up in conflicts where individuals have a limited influence on their lives.

Her novel Rose on poissa was a Finlandia Prize 2018 nominee. Kettu's works have been translated into 23 languages.

Katja Kettu's literary works:

Surujenkerääjä, 2005 WSOY

Hitsaaja, 2008 WSOY

Kätilö, 2011 WSOY

Piippuhylly, novelleja, 2013 WSOY

Novelli palaa! Matkanovelleja, co-edited with Aki Salmela, 2013 WSOY

Yöperhonen, 2015 WSOY

Peräkammarin poika, illustrated by Jan Andersson, 2015 Otava

Rose on poissa, 2018 WSOY

Erään kissan tutkimuksia, 2023 Otava

About author


Maria Peura

Maria Peura is a prize-winning author and dramaturge. She received the prestigious Young Aleksis Prize and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize for her debut novel Your Love Is Infinite (On rakkautes ääretön) in 2001. It also received the Olvi Foundation Award and the Good Deed for Children Award and was met with critical acclaim in Spain. At the Edge of Light (Valon reunalla) received stellar reviews in Finland, the Czech Republic, and in the UK, where it was published in 2007. Among Peura’s other works is a collection of poetry for children.

About author


Tommi Kinnunen

Tommi Kinnunen (1973) was born in Kuusamo in northeastern Finland and currently lives in Turku, where he works as a teacher of Finnish language and literature. His works include novels, opera librettos, short stories, and a non-fiction title on the changes taking place in the Finnish school system.

Kinnunen’s novels give a voice to those whose stories have been kept untold. He made a stellar debut with Where Four Roads Meet (orig. Neljäntienristeys) which was nominated for the Finlandia Prize and won the Young Aleksis Prize in 2015. The following novels The Light Behind the Eyes (orig. Lopotti), The Glass River (orig. Pintti), and Defiance (orig. Ei kertonut katuvansa) have been both critical and commercial successes. His books have been translated into 20 languages.

During his spare time, Kinnunen likes to refurbish old buildings.

Introducing two new highly acclaimed Fiction titles!

We are very happy to include two new literary fiction titles to our Fall 2023 Catalogue!

Firstly, we have added to our list 36 URNS: A History of Being Wrong, the latest title by award-winning author Sirpa Kähkönen! Her moving and poetic requiem to her mother was published in Finland by Siltala in August 2023.

Critics have already hailed 36 URNS as Sirpa’s best novel yet:

Sirpa Kähkönen’s previous historical novels and non-fiction works are great, personal, and attractive, but now she has done something completely new and wonderful. Kähkönen writes more maturely and boldly than ever before. [—] 36 URNS, if any at all, is a mature novel. It has a rich taste. It is like the crown on a long career as a writer. [—] 36 URNS is a literary experience. Its language rings, jingles, reports, lyricizes, sympathizes with the pain, and carries the history of a family with it.
– Outi Hytönen, Suomen Kuvalehti magazine

36 URNS has already had its first foreign deal, as Sirpa’s Estonian publisher Koolibri has acquired the Estonian rights for this title.

Sirpa Kähkönen’s masterpiece poetically brings together complex family relationships and the twists and turns of the history of Finland.
– Kadri Rahusaar, managing editor, Koolibri, Estonia

Download materials for 36 URNS here!

Secondly, we are proud to add to our list FIRSTBORN, the latest title by award-winning author Maria Peura! Her heartrending story about her firstborn son being taken into custody was published in Finland by Otava in August 2023 – and has also received excellent reviews!

Praise for FIRSTBORN:

FIRSTBORN is a heartrending and elegantly built story. It talks about a mother who has experienced belittling as a child and domestic violence and who now has to relinquish her child into child protection institution. [—] A mother’s love is the core theme of the novel. It is depicted in many forms, in different stages of life and in different directions [—]. It is a personal and intimate novel. In its subject matter, it is a profound and skillful novel. [—] Peura impressively depicts the magnitude and the personal, tearing impact of the events [described in the book].”

– Outi Hytönen, Suomen Kuvalehti magazine

Download materials for FIRSTBORN here!

36 Urns: A History of Being Wrong

Sirpa Kähkönen

A celebrated author’s masterful and poetic confession of love to her mother

Author Sirpa Kähkönen’s mother Riitta (b. 1941) died in March 2022 after a long illness. In life, she struggled to accept love. “I do not grieve your death, I grieve your life,” Sirpa Kähkönen writes, knowing fully well that her mother wouldn’t like the phrase. Her mother rejected love, despite longing for it the most. Riitta was athletic, beautiful, and gifted. A traffic accident at the age of 16 changed the course of her life for ever.

Drawing on her mother’s diaries, Kähkönen depicts the life of a 1950s girl and the dramatic change that followed the accident. The novel talks about community dance halls, a broken mind, flowing hems, a 1960s mother, anxiety, anger and hate, addiction, and moments of psychosis. It talks about how wars and other crises become corporeal, how violence is inherited, and how the culture of discouragement and submission is passed down through the generations in sayings and attitudes, with the author clearly seeing herself as part of the tradition of anger and violence.

The novel is permeated by a fiery love, as if an ancient Finnish spell that, with the power of words, is capable of bringing loved ones back from the dead.

 

Firstborn

Maria Peura

A heartrending autobiographical novel about one’s own child being placed in an institution and about feeling out of place as a child

The author starts putting together the story of her firstborn child – a child whose ill-being and problematic behavior eventually led to him being placed in a child protection institution. Only now, when everything is okay, does the author dare to put her own distress and guilt into words. “What mistakes did I make? How was I trespassed against and why has my child ended up broken because of me being broken?”

Maria Peura’s autobiographical novel is a relentlessly honest and lyrically beautiful depiction of the cycles of trauma, of the effects of violence, and the chance for light and survival.

36 URNS: A HISTORY OF BEING WRONG
36 UURNAA – VÄÄRÄSSÄ OLEMISEN HISTORIA
Siltala, 2023, 267 pp.

READING MATERIALS
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

RIGHTS SOLD:
FINLAND: Siltala (orig.)
ESTONIA: Koolibri

 

FIRSTBORN
ESIKOINEN
Otava, 2023, 320 pp.

READING MATERIALS
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

RIGHTS SOLD:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

About author


Maria Peura

Maria Peura is a prize-winning author and dramaturge. She received the prestigious Young Aleksis Prize and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize for her debut novel Your Love Is Infinite (On rakkautes ääretön) in 2001. It also received the Olvi Foundation Award and the Good Deed for Children Award and was met with critical acclaim in Spain. At the Edge of Light (Valon reunalla) received stellar reviews in Finland, the Czech Republic, and in the UK, where it was published in 2007. Among Peura’s other works is a collection of poetry for children.

About author


Sirpa Kähkönen

Sirpa Kähkönen was born to a family that had been harshly treated by the history of the 1900s. World War II and the Civil War preceding it had wounded her family members and marked them with heavy silence and unspoken words.

Mapping out that silence became Sirpa’s work. The first questions that arose were related to her closest circle: what had happened to her beloved grandparents? From her personal sphere the intellectual curiosity widened to touch upon the history of Finland and then the history of Europe, and finally, researching the fate of an individual during times of crisis.

Sirpa Kähkönen lives and works in Helsinki. She constructs her works upon research, using a wide array of archives, newspaper clippings, research material, and contemporary literature. Inspired by microhistorical research tradition, Sirpa writes about how mentalities are formed, and how the immaterial inheritance runs in family lines and in societies.

Sirpa Kähkönen’s historical novel begins where source information ends. It opens the gates to experiencing the past in a sensory way; the characters live out the story as physical, sensual beings.

Sirpa Kähkönen has published thirteen novels of which one (36 Urns: A History of Being Wrong) has won and four others have been nominated for the prestigious Finlandia prize and one has been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. She has also published three non-fiction titles, one of which was nominated for the Tieto-Finlandia prize for non-fiction literature. In 2022, Kähkönen received the Finnish Cultural Foundation's Grand Prize for significant achievements in culture. She has also written five stageplays.

Awards and nominations:

Kirjallisuuden valtionpalkinto 1992 - The State Literary Prize 1992

Savonia-palkinto 1999 - Savonia Prize 1999

Kuopion taiteilijaseuran kirjallisuuden tunnustuspalkinto 2003 - The Kuopio Artist Society's Literary Award 2003

Kiitos kirjasta -mitali 2008 - Thank You for the book medallion 2008

Savon Sanomien Savonmuan Hilima -titteli 2010

Otavan kirjasäätiön Veijo Meri -palkinto 2012 - Otava Literary Fund Veijo Meri Prize 2012

Pro-Finlandia -mitali 2015 - Pro Finlandia Medallion 2015

Suomi-palkinto 2016 - Suomi-Finland Prize 2016 from the Ministry of Education and Culture

Savonia-palkinto 2021 - Savonia Prize 2021

Suomen Kulttuurirahaston suurpalkinto - The Finnish Cultural Foundation's Grand Prize 2021

Finlandia-palkinto 2023 - Finlandia Prize 2023

Spanish rights sold to Maria Peura’s debut novel Your Love is Infinite

On rakkautes ŠŠretšnWe are proud to announce that Sexto Piso, a publisher known for its outstanding translated literature, has acquired rights to Your Love Is Infinite (Tammi 2001), Maria Peura’s Finlandia Prize-nominated first novel. Among other authors published by Sexto Piso are Joseph Conrad, Renata Adler and Herman Melville.

Peura was given the prestigious Young Aleksis Kivi Prize and nominated for the Finlandia Prize for Your Love Is Infinite. The novel also received the Olvi Foundation Award and the Good Deed for Children Award, and received praise from critics.

“The impressive paradox of Peura’s work is that the novel is good and beautiful in spite of it dealing with what is evil and ugly.”
– The Finlandia Prize jury (on Your Love is Infinite)

Peura has gone on to write three other novels, all of which have received critical acclaim: among them is At The Edge of Light (Teos 2005), which was published in the UK by Maia Press in 2007. Contact us for an English edition!

Peura’s most recent work is And the Stars Fall (Teos 2014).

About Your Love Is Infinite:

Six-year-old Saara’s parents are incapable of caring for her, and she is sent to her grandparents’ house for the summer. Although her grandfather inflicts horrific violence on her, Saara believes that he is truly the only person who loves her. Saara longs after her mother, but she isn’t able to help, and Saara is left at her grandfather’s mercy. To cope, she escapes into a world of fantasy and guilt.

RIGHTS SOLD
Your Love is Infinite:
Original publisher:
FINLAND, Tammi
SPAIN: Sexto Piso

At the Edge of Light:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Teos
UNITED KINGDOM: Maia Press

Reading materials: Your Love is Infinite
Finnish edition
German sample
Reading materials: At the Edge of Light
UK edition
Finnish edition

Contact: info@ahlbackagency.com

About author


Maria Peura

Maria Peura is a prize-winning author and dramaturge. She received the prestigious Young Aleksis Prize and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize for her debut novel Your Love Is Infinite (On rakkautes ääretön) in 2001. It also received the Olvi Foundation Award and the Good Deed for Children Award and was met with critical acclaim in Spain. At the Edge of Light (Valon reunalla) received stellar reviews in Finland, the Czech Republic, and in the UK, where it was published in 2007. Among Peura’s other works is a collection of poetry for children.

Bibliography


2023, Literary Fiction

Firstborn

Maria Peura


2014, Literary Fiction

And the Stars Fall

Maria Peura


2005, Literary Fiction

At the Edge of Light

Maria Peura


2001, Literary Fiction

Your Love Is Infinite

Maria Peura

Maria Peura is participating in the annual Lahti International Writers’ Reunion (LIWRE) 19.-21.6.

Author Maria Peura is participating in the annual Lahti International Writers’ Reunion (LIWRE) 19.-21.6. This year’s theme, The Writer Beyond Words, concentrates on how the writer meets the limits of language and narration. The event draws people from Finland and all around the world. Also participating are, for instance, Riina Katajavuori and Hannele Huovi. The event is organized for the 25th time this year and takes place in the Messilä Manor, near the city of Lahti.

Maria Peura’s intervention can be read here:
http://www.liwre.fi/site/?lan=3&page_id=512

For more information about The Lahti International Writers’ Reunion (LIWRE):
http://www.liwre.fi/site/?lan=3&page_id=42

About author


Maria Peura

Maria Peura is a prize-winning author and dramaturge. She received the prestigious Young Aleksis Prize and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize for her debut novel Your Love Is Infinite (On rakkautes ääretön) in 2001. It also received the Olvi Foundation Award and the Good Deed for Children Award and was met with critical acclaim in Spain. At the Edge of Light (Valon reunalla) received stellar reviews in Finland, the Czech Republic, and in the UK, where it was published in 2007. Among Peura’s other works is a collection of poetry for children.

Bibliography


2023, Literary Fiction

Firstborn

Maria Peura


2014, Literary Fiction

And the Stars Fall

Maria Peura


2005, Literary Fiction

At the Edge of Light

Maria Peura


2001, Literary Fiction

Your Love Is Infinite

Maria Peura