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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.
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.
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.)
