Martta Kaukonen’s Follow the Butterfly soars: Bestseller in Germany and rave reviews from Italy!

We are thrilled to announce the phenomenal success of Martta Kaukonen’s Follow the Butterfly (Therapiert, Heyne 2023) in Germany! The Spiegel bestseller has sold close to 30,000 copies and is now on its 4th print run. Congratulations to Martta Kaukonen and Heyne!

This milestone comes just in time for the highly anticipated release of the sequel, Traumatisiert (Meet Me in the Darkness), which hits shelves on March 12.

Sold to 16 territories, Martta Kaukonen’s international acclaim continues to grow. Earlier this month, Follow the Butterfly was published in Italy by Longanesi, accompanied by a feature interview with Martta Kaukonen in La Repubblica. In the interview, she delves into the feminist themes of her book, which focuses on strong female characters, the psychological toll of abuse, and a deliberate departure from conventional crime storytelling.

Rights are still available in the Netherlands, Sweden, France, World Spanish, Norway… Stay tuned as Martta Kaukonen continues to captivate readers in new languages!

Italian online magazine Zetatielle hailed the novel as a genre-defying masterpiece. Journalist Monica Col wrote:

“Kaukonen demonstrates an extraordinary mastery of language, using it like a scalpel to dissect human frailties. The writing is dense, evocative, full of metaphors and symbolisms that transform each scene into a small enigma to be deciphered. The descriptions are so vivid that they are almost tangible, but instead of offering certainties, they amplify the sense of bewilderment, making Butterfly more similar to a surrealist painting than to a conventional plot. — Butterfly is a hypnotic and disturbing journey, which requires the reader to abandon all expectations and be transported into a world where nothing is as it seems. Martta Kaukonen has created a work of art that challenges the conventions of the genre, proving that the thriller can be much more than a simple game of suspense.”

 

Click here to request reading materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY and its sequels!

TERAPIASSA
WSOY, 2021, 471 pp.

Reading materials: Full English manuscript, German Edition

HENGISSÄ:
WSOY, 2023, 272 pp.

Reading materials: Full unedited English manuscript, Full unedited German manuscript

POISSA
WSOY, 2025, 300 pp.

Reading materials: English synopsis, Finnish manuscript (March 2025)

Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
FILM & TV: Legendary Tobis TV
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book-deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book-deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó (2-book-deal)
ICELAND: Storytel (3-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book-deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi Publishing
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible

 

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

Literary Review selects Martta Kaukonen’s Follow the Butterfly as one of the top crime novels of 2024!

We’re so proud of Martta Kaukonen for her bestselling thriller FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY appearing in the prestigious UK literary magazine Literary Review! In their December 2024/January 2025 Crime Round-up, Natasha Cooper selected 8 of the best crime novels, including the likes of Paula Hawkins.

She described FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY as follows:

A fascinating study of guilt, shame, blame and the stories we tell ourselves to make life bearable.This is Finnish film critic Kaukonen’s first novel and features seductive portraits of characters both monstrous and admirable.

Click here to download all reading materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY!

 

About FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY:

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

TERAPIASSA
WSOY, 2021, 471 pp.

Reading materials: Full English manuscript, German Edition

HENGISSÄ:
WSOY, 2023, 272 pp.

Reading materials: Full English manuscript, German MS

POISSA
WSOY, 2025, 300 pp.

Reading materials: English synopsis

Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
FILM & TV: Legendary Tobis TV
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book-deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book-deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó (2-book-deal)
ICELAND: Storytel (3-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book-deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi Publishing
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen’s FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY trilogy travels to Iceland!

We are thrilled to announce that Storytel has acquired the Icelandic rights to Martta Kaukonen’s FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY, MEET ME IN THE DARKNESS and FREE (working title). The deal was closed by Martti Berner. This is Kaukonen’s first three-book deal. Follow the Butterfly has now sold to 16 territories, with a full English manuscript available!

Congratulations to Martta Kaukonen, and Storytel!

Martta Kaukonen’s international acclaim continues to grow. Follow the Butterfly was recently nominated for Germany’s Viktor Crime Award and previously for the prestigious Glass Key Award. Published as Therapiert in Germany, the book has sold over 24,000 copies and it hit the Spiegel bestseller list. Film and TV rights have been acquired by Legendary Tobis. Martta Kaukonen’s work has received glowing starred reviews everywhere it has been published.

The eagerly anticipated third book in the Follow the Butterfly series is set for Finnish publication in May 2025, and its stunning cover has just been revealed! Heyne Verlag is set to release the second book, Traumatisiert, in Spring 2025, with Pushkin Press planning to publish the English edition of the second book around the same time.

English and German editions are available!

Click here to download all reading materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY!

Want to be part of this global phenomenon? Rights are still available in Sweden, France, World Spanish, the Netherlands, Portugal, China, Thailand, and more!

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY offers a brilliant cat and mouse game between the author and the reader. Regardless of which narrator you choose to believe, the pieces of this psychological thriller ultimately click into place like a jigsaw puzzle. – The Times


FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY

by Martta Kaukonen

An addictive psychological thriller in the spirit of Gillian Flynn

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

MEET ME IN THE DARKNESS
by Martta Kaukonen

Nothing is as it seems.

Four years have passed since the events of Follow the Butterfly. Ira and Arto have teamed up, and both work as crime journalists for the Helsinki Today. Everything’s going nicely, until Ira starts suspecting there’s a serial killer on the loose in Helsinki.

The murders are investigated by Senior Crime Inspector Kerttu Leppänen, who leads the murder unit and eagerly waits for retirement. Unsolved cases haunt Kerttu, who is unable to forgive herself.

The past catches up with all of them – if they were ever free from its clutches in the first place…

FREE
by Martta Kaukonen

Is it worth digging up the truth?

It’s 1995. Detective Chief Inspector Kerttu Leppänen and her spouse, Inspector Esko Koivuvyö, are tasked with investigating the murder of a middle-aged woman. However, the crime scene presents a mystery that complicates the investigation: beside the body, there is a bloody knife on a pillow, even though it cannot be the murder weapon.

Thirty years later, Ira is determined to uncover the truth about her parents’ marriage. Why did her mother Marja fear her father Arto? And why does Arto refuse to answer Ira’s questions? Across different decades, Kerttu and Ira each come to the same realization: if you uncover the truth, you must be prepared to face its consequences.

TERAPIASSA
WSOY, 2021, 471 pp.

Reading materials: Full English manuscript, German Edition

HENGISSÄ:
WSOY, 2023, 272 pp.

Reading materials: Full English manuscript, German MS

POISSA
WSOY, 2025, 300 pp.

Reading materials: English synopsis

Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
FILM & TV: Legendary Tobis TV
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book-deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book-deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó (2-book-deal)
ICELAND: Storytel (3-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book-deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi Publishing
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible

 

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY nominated for Viktor Crime Award!

Exciting news! First up, FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY by Martta Kaukonen has been nominated for the Viktor Crime Award, a prestigious prize hosted by Germany’s most successful thriller author Sebastian Fitzek. Congratulations Martta!

Follow the Butterfly, aka “Therapiert”, was published by Heyne Verlag in February 2023 and it hit the Spiegel Bestseller list. The sequel, Meet Me in the Darkness (Traumatisiert), will be published in Spring 2025.

More information about the Viktor Crime Award in the organizer’s words:

 “The prize is awarded in the categories “international” and “national” and honors new, successful voices who have achieved the best debut in the genre of thriller literature in the last two years on the German-language market and who are also expected to achieve further success in the future. The prize is endowed with EUR 6,666 (EUR 3,333 per category).”

The book is on the shortlist with two other nominees in the international category. The winner will be announced on November 1st, at Europe’s biggest international Crime fiction festival, Mord am Hellweg.

Also…

Last Spring Martta Kaukonen was also nominated for the prestigious Glass Key Award!

The Glass Key Award (Glasnyckeln/Glasnøglen) is an award by the Scandinavian Crime Novel Society and is given out to a book written by a Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian or Swedish author each year. Previous winners include Henning Mankell, Peter Høeg, Jo Nesbø, Stieg Larsson, Karin Fossum, and last year Max Seeck! FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY has been sold to 16 territories. In Denmark, the title has been published by Falco in 2023 as Hvad ser du, translated by René Semberlund Jensen, which was the edition read by the international jury.

“A tense, unsettling, gripping serial killer narrative that takes some very unexpected turns… Such a clever book that juxataposes serial killing with some very profound points – my favourite kind of crime fiction. Highly recommended!'”
– Harriet Tyce

Finally, we’re excited to talk about Martta Kaukonen’s international press campaign! While details aren’t finalized yet for the other countries, we can talk about the book bloggers meet happening in Hungary.

Thanks to the lovely people at Martta’s Hungarian publisher Partvonal for helping us organize and setting up the event! This online chat will be conducted in English, happening October 17th 2024 at 16.00-17.00 CET.

Click here for event details and registration on Facebook!

For any of you who aren’t familiar with FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY, here’s a little bit about the book:

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

Click here to download all reading materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY!

Publication Info:
Terapiassa, WSOY 2021, 407 p.

Rights sold: FINLAND: WSOY (orig.) CROATIA: Znanje, CZECHIA: Albatros Media, DENMARK: Forlaget Falco, ESTONIA: Hea Lugu, FILM & TV: Legendary Tobis TV, GERMANY: Heyne, GREECE: Psichogios,  HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó, ITALY: Longanesi, LATVIA: Jumava, LITHUANIA: Obuolys, POLAND: Czarna Owca, WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi, WORLD ENGLISH: Pushkin Press, Audible (audio)

Rights for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY still available in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway…

Reading Materials:
Full English manuscript and German edition

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen joins bestselling crime authors, former Prime Minister, and former FBI director, at the UK’s Harrogate Festival!

Back in May we announced that Martta Kaukonen, international bestseller of FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY (Pushkin Press), joined the superstar lineup invited to the big Harrogate Festival in the UK this July…and that day has finally arrived!

It was an amazing weekend, and we were able to get some great photos – among them other bestselling authors, a former FBI director, and Scotland’s former prime minister, and more.

She also attended the New Blood panel, officially described: “This perennial Festival favourite provides a showcase for outstanding first-time authors and this year it comes with a twist. Some of the UK’s top crime fiction critics have selected four terrific debuts and the authors will discuss them with 2024 Festival Programming Chair, Ruth Ware.”

Now for the festival photos! Clockwise, from left to right:

1. Martta with Scotland’s former prime minister Nicola Sturgeon, 2. Martta with the former director of FBI James Comey, 3. The New Blood panel attendees: From left to right: Jonny Sweet, panel chair Ruth Ware, Claire Coughlan, Colin Walsh, 4. Martta with bestselling crime writer Harriet Tyce, 5. Martta with CBE Lynda La Plante, 6. Martta with bestselling crime writer Erin Kelly,  7.  Martta with bestselling crime writer Peter James

                                                                 

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen among superstar lineup in UK crime writing festival

We’re so proud of our globally bestselling Martta Kaukonen, who has been invited to the internationally prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival taking place this July in Harrogate! Yesterday she attended the launch with other international favorites, including Chris Carter, Elly Griffiths, Harriet Tyce, and Lauren Beukes, as you’ll see from our event photos.

For any interested in learning more about the festival, here is info about the Harrogate Festival and Programme Revealedhttps://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/news/theakston-old-peculier-crime-writing-festival-full-programme-revealed/

 

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY by Martta Kaukonen published in the UK to great reviews!

We are excited to announce that Martta Kaukonen’s internationally successful psychological thriller Follow the Butterfly is now out in English, translated by David Hackston and published by Pushkin Press! Simultaneously with the UK edition, Audible US has published the audiobook version of Follow the Butterfly.

Read more about the English edition of Follow the Butterfly here.

Congratulations to Martta Kaukonen and Pushkin Press!

Follow the Butterfly has already received its first, outstanding reviews in the United Kingdom and Ireland:

“Follow the Butterfly is the portrait of a failing marriage, a demonstration of the perils and pitfalls of “the talking cure” and a brilliant game of cat and mouse between author and reader. [–] Whether, in the end, you believe either of them, there’s no denying the pieces of this psychological thriller fit together as ingeniously as those in a Chinese puzzle box.”
– Mark Sanderson, The Times, UK

This first novel by Finnish film critic Martta Kaukonen is a fascinating study in guilt, shame, blame and the stories we tell ourselves to make life bearable. [–] The delivery of information, both real and false, is beautifully handled. The portrait of the vain and self-deceiving therapist is chilling, and the ultimate revelation of what has been going on in all four lives is horribly convincing.
Natasha Cooper, Literary Review, UK

Told from the points of view of Ida, Clarissa and her husband Pekka, and newspaper journalist Arto, the twists and turns accumulate, and we’re soon wondering which of the narrators, if any, is telling the truth. A slow burn to start, this dark tale packs a punch when the deadly cat-and-mouse game culminates in a host of shattering revelations.
Breda Brown, Sunday Independent, Ireland

Follow the Butterfly has been a critical success and bestseller both in Finland and abroad:

  • Rights for the title have been sold to 16 territories!
  • Film and TV rights have been acquired by Legendary Tobis TV!
  • The German edition of Follow the Butterfly was a Spiegel bestseller with more than 24,000 copies sold!
  • It is currently nominated for the Glass Key Award of 2024 and has previously been nominated for the Savonia Prize!

The sequel to Follow the Butterfly, Meet Me In the Darkness, was published in Finland last December and has also been met with critical acclaim.

Rights for Follow the Butterfly are still available in France, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Romania, the Netherlands, etc!

Download the materials for Follow the Butterfly here!

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

An addictive psychological thriller in the spirit of Gillian Flynn

An international bestseller with rights sold to 16 territories and TV rights sold to Legendary Tobis
A critical success and bestseller in Finland!
✓ Nominated for the Glass Key Award of 2024!
✓ A Spiegel bestseller in Germany!

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY
TERAPIASSA
WSOY, 2021, 407 pp.

READING MATERIALS
English edition
Finnish edition
German edition

RIGHTS SOLD:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Penguin Random House / Heyne
GREECE: Psichogios
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó
ITALY: Longanesi
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi
WORLD ENGLISH (audio): Audible
FILM & TV RIGHTS: Legendary Tobis TV

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY by Martta Kaukonen is the Finnish nominee for the prestigious Glass Key Award!

We are thrilled to to announce that the Finnish nominee for the Glass Key Award is Martta Kaukonen’s best-selling thriller FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY!

Congrats, Martta! 

The Glass Key Award (Glasnyckeln/Glasnøglen) is an award by the Scandinavian Crime Novel Society and is given out to a book written by a Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian or Swedish author each year. Previous winners include Henning Mankell, Peter Høeg, Jo Nesbø, Stieg Larsson, Karin Fossum, and last year Max Seeck!

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY has been sold to 16 territories. In Denmark, the title has been published by Falco in 2023 as Hvad ser du, translated by René Semberlund Jensen, which is the edition the international jury will read. The winner will be announced in summer.

The other known nominees are those of Sweden and Iceland:

SwedenLevande och döda by Christoffer Carlsson
IcelandStorebror by Skúrli Sigurðsson

Heyne Verlag in Germany published Follow the Butterfly, aka Therapiert, in February 2023 and it hit the Spiegel Bestseller list, has sold more than 24,000 copies, and has received multiple starred reviews! UK & US publisher Pushkin Press will launch Follow the Butterfly in March 2024. Book 2: Meet Me in the Darkness has been received in Finland with buzzing reviews!

Rights to this unique international bestseller are still available e.g. in France, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, etc.

Download the materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY here!

 

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

An addictive psychological thriller in the spirit of Gillian Flynn

  • An international bestseller by author-journalist Martta Kaukonen, sold to 16 territories and TV rights to Legendary Tobis
  • A critical success and bestseller in Finland!
  • Savonia Prize nominee!
  • A Spiegel bestseller in Germany!

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

Terapiassa
WSOY, March 2021, 407 pp.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Penguin Random House / Heyne
GREECE: Psichogios
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó
ITALY: Longanesi
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi
WORLD ENGLISH (audio): Audible
FILM & TV RIGHTS: Legendary Tobis TV

Reading materials:
English edition
German edition

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

The Italian rights to Martta Kaukonen’s bestselling thriller FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY acquired by Longanesi!

We are thrilled to tell that we’ve closed an Italian deal for Martta Kaukonen’s FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY! The rights to the Spiegel-bestselling thriller were acquired in a pre-empt by Longanesi, who praised the title saying:

“Clever, surprising, rich with both plot twists and emotional nouances. What more could you ask for from a great thriller? We were totally taken by the masterfully conducted shifts of point of view which leaves the reader guessing and questioning the moral compass of all the characters right to the end. What a fun and engaging read!”
– Giuseppe Strazzeri, Editorial Director Longanesi

Martta Kaukonen’s internationally bestselling psychological thriller FOLLOW THE BUTTERLY has been sold to 16 territories  Film & TV rights acquired by Legendary Tobis!
Heyne Verlag in Germany published THERAPIERT in February 2023 and it hit the Spiegel Bestseller list, has sold more than 24,000 copies, and has received multiple starred reviews! UK & US publisher Pushkin Press will launch FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY in March 2024. Book 2: RETURN OF THE BUTTERLY has been received in Finland with buzzing reviews!

Rights to this unique international bestseller are still available e.g. in France, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, etc.

English and German editions are available!

Download the materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY here!

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

An addictive psychological thriller in the spirit of Gillian Flynn

  • An international bestseller by author-journalist Martta Kaukonen, sold to 16 territories and TV rights to Legendary Tobis
  • A critical success and bestseller in Finland!
  • Savonia Prize nominee!
  • A Spiegel bestseller in Germany!
  • US & UK release in Spring 2024 by Pushkin Press!
  • Full English text available!

Ira, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ira becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

Terapiassa
WSOY, March 2021, 407 pp.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Penguin Random House / Heyne
GREECE: Psichogios
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó
ITALY: Longanesi
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi
WORLD ENGLISH (audio): Audible
FILM & TV RIGHTS: Legendary Tobis TV
Reading materials:
English edition
German edition

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

Legendary Tobis TV has acquired the TV & Film rights to Martta Kaukonen’s THERAPIERT aka FOLLOW TO BUTTERFLY!

German series production company Legendary Tobis TV has acquired the rights to Martta Kaukonen’s internationally bestselling, exceptional thriller debut THERAPIERT aka FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY and will develop it into a German language series.  

We are very excited to start working on THERAPIERT by Martta Kaukonen, which is one of the most thrilling debuts of this year. With its strong female characters and surprising twists, it is perfect for a series adaption”, says Isabel Hund, CEO of Legendary Tobis.

The offers have been coming in from abroad since FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY was published in 2021. Now, a production company  Legendary Tobis that understands my novel the way I intended, even between the lines, has been found. I feel as if my protagonist, the 20-year-old serial killer Ida, has finally found her way home.
– Martta Kaukonen, Author

Legendary Tobis TV is a Joint Venture between leading German producer-distributor Tobis and the Los Angeles based Legendary Entertainment. The Munich based company was founded in 2022 and focuses on high-end scripted series and mini-series driven by local stories and talent.

Martta Kaukonen’s internationally bestselling psychological thriller FOLLOW THE BUTTERLY has been sold to 15 territories and is creating buzz wherever published, recently in Germany, Poland, Greece, Denmark etc. Heyne Verlag in Germany published THERAPIERT in February 2023 and it hit the Spiegel Bestseller list, has sold more than 24,000 copies, and has received multiple starred reviews! UK & US publisher Pushkin Press will launch FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY in March 2024. Book 2: RETURN OF THE BUTTERLY will be published in Finland in December 2023 by WSOY.

Rights to this unique international bestseller are still available e.g. in France, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, etc.

English and German editions are available!

Download the materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY here!

TERAPIASSA
WSOY, March 2021, 471 pp.

Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book-deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book-deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó (2-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book-deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi Publishing
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible
FILM & TV RIGHTS: Legendary Tobis TV

Reading materials: English edition, German edition

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY by Martta Kaukonen World Arabic rights sold!

We are happy to announce the World Arabic rights for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY have sold to Al Arabi Publishing. The deal was closed by Mimi Matinpalo at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.  FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY has now sold in 15 territories! Full English MS is available! 

Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing, established in 1975, is specializing in publishing translated literature, such as Finnish author Leena Lehtolainen’s novels.  The Arabic publisher Sherif Bakr said:

“The Arab readers are quite thrilled waiting for the most remarkable psychological thriller by Martta Kaukonen Follow the Butterfly ” – Al Arabi

Congratulations Al Arabi Publishing and Martta Kaukonen!

The long-awaited sequel to FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY will be released in December 2023.

Want to join this international success story? Rights are still available in France, Italy, World Spanish, Sweden, Netherlands, Portugal, China, Thailand etc. 

Download the materials for FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY here!

Praise from foreign publishers and media of FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY:

“We couldn’t be more excited to have acquired Martta Kaukonen’s twisty addictive psychological thriller FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY and its sequel. Ida has to be the most sympathetic serial killer in crime fiction, and is one of the most original protagonists we’ve come across in a very long time.”
– Daniel Seton, Pushkin Press, United Kingdom

“This is an extremely addictive, plot-driven and immensely twisty novel. This book keeps suspense until the end. I’m very glad I could deeply dive into Follow the Butterfly.”
– Dominika Dudarew-Osiecka, Czarna Owca, Poland

”I have never read a thriller like this. A female serial killer whom we root for and not one unreliable narrator but four whose narratives are woven into each other with such skill. This plot-driven, emotional and wonderfully written book is what our readers have been waiting for.”
–Janina Dyballa, Heyne Verlag

“Interesting, mysterious, and gripping story told from the perspective of serial killer which makes it original and unique.”
–Dijana Orsolic, Znanje publishing, Croatia

“One of the most suspenseful thrillers I have ever read [–] incredibly captivating [–] well-thought-out and well-written [–] really magnificent”.
– Nicole List in ORF TV programme Studio 2, Austria

“The most suspenseful and surprising book in a long time. Only a few sentences in I realised: I am the fly in the spider net.”
– Ulla Müller, Bayern 1 radio (24. March 2023), Germany

 

TERAPIASSA
WSOY, March 2021, 471 pp.

Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECHIA: Albatros Media
DENMARK: Forlaget Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book-deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book-deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal Kiadó (2-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book-deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book-deal)
WORLD ARABIC: Al Arabi Publishing
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible

Reading materials: Full English manuscript

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen on the SPIEGEL BESTSELLER list!

We are thrilled to announce that just one week after its publication in Germany, FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY aka THERAPIERT (Heyne Verlag) by Martta Kaukonen has entered the German bestsellers lists! Currently, it is on place 15 of the SPIEGEL BESTSELLER LIST for paperpacks – and German publisher Heyne have already ordered a second edition! What a start for the book on the German market!

Readers have been buzzing about the book as well:

Martta Kaukonen constructs a masterfully narrated psychological thriller, that doesn’t cease to amaze us as it gradually reveals more and more of its characters’ secrets. FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY is a somewhat different, very psychologically constructed thriller, that convinces with soft tones and big feelings. Exciting until the very last page.” – Silke Schröder on hallo-buch.de

Nothing is as it seems. The topic of therapy takes center stage and offers readers an exciting insight into the depths of the human psyche – a truly successful thriller!” – myautumnofbooks

The ending then even outdid all the previous twists. After finishing the book, I was left with a feeling of “Wow!”.” – JS Booklover

Congratulations to Martta Kaukonen and Heyne for this impressive achievement! 

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY has been a critical success and bestseller in Finland, and was nominated for the Savonia Prize. The rights were sold to to 14 territories and the book will be published in the UK and US next year by Pushkin Press. A sequel is coming out in November 2023.

We now have a full English manuscript for you to review. Rights are still available for France, Italy, World Spanish, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and many more!

Download the full English text here! 

Terapiassa / Follow the Butterfly

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECH REPUBLIC: Kniha Zlin/Albatros
DENMARK: Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal (2-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY now published in German!

Publication news! 

We are excited to announce that Martta Kaukonen’s international success crime novel FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY is now out in German, published by Heyne this week! And we love their cover! 

THERAPIERT has already been praised by German bloggers:

The thriller was able to surprise me with many plot twists, fool me and was simply a great read, because especially the frequent changes between the different perspectives made me incredibly curious again and again and everything came together bit by bit and yet in suspenseful manner (…) Ultimately, in my opinion, a successful debut by the author and I am already incredibly excited to see what I can read from her next!” – Gedankenlabor blog

It’s exciting how the author succeeded in her novel to present the events as present, but the characters spoke to you as if they were reflecting on the events with us in a Netflix series. That was definitely the icing on the cake for me! (…) FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY [was] a real page turner. Every twist hits you cold and every solution you come up with is destroyed by the author in one sentence. A thriller that will take your breath away. You can no longer trust your own thoughts and the individual characters. Recommended reading for psychological thriller fans!” – Lisa Albrecht on academicworld.net

Kaukonen’s debut novel is in its structure and narrative style reminiscent of thrillers by Gillian Flynn (amongst others “Gone Girl”), Paula Hawkins (“Girl on the train”) or A. J. Finn (“The woman in the window”). The novel really toys with the reader. (…) A clever game of confusion that draws its subtle tension from the constant changes in perspective and the numerous twists and turns. The special narrative style makes Kaukonen’s novel so worth reading. A psychological thriller that really gets under your skin and subliminally, but sometimes ironically, also criticizes the media and psychotherapy.” – Thomas Gisbertz on Krimicouch.de

Congratulations to Heyne and Martta Kaukonen! 

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY has been a critical success and bestseller in Finland, and was nominated for the Savonia Prize. The rights were sold to to 14 territories and the book will be published in the UK and US next year by Pushkin Press. A sequel is coming out in November 2023.

We now have a full English manuscript for you to review. Rights are still available for France, Italy, World Spanish, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, …

Download the full English text here!

Terapiassa / Follow the Butterfly

Rights sold:

FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
CROATIA: Znanje
CZECH REPUBLIC: Kniha Zlin/Albatros
DENMARK: Falco
ESTONIA: Hea Lugu
GERMANY: Heyne (2-book deal)
GREECE: Psichogios (2-book deal)
HUNGARY: Partvonal (2-book-deal)
LATVIA: Jumava
LITHUANIA: Obuolys
POLAND: Czarna Owca (2-book deal)
UNITED KINGDOM: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
UNITED STATES: Pushkin Press (2-book deal)
WORLD ENGLISH (Audio): Audible

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

Bibliography


2025, Crime & Suspense

Free

Martta Kaukonen


2023, Crime & Suspense

Meet Me in the Darkness

Martta Kaukonen


2022, Crime & Suspense

In Your Shadow

Martta Kaukonen


2021, Crime & Suspense

Follow the Butterfly

Martta Kaukonen

FILI grants and latest reviews

We wish to remind you that the final FILI grant application period is open from 1st October to 1st November!

In the previous application period of Spring 2022, over 90 projects received the FILI grant with over 150 000 EUR awarded in total! See the previously awarded projects here.

Up to 70% of translation costs from Finnish, Finland-Swedish and Sámi languages can be covered by a FILI translation grant. There are three application periods per year, and the fall application period is 1.10.-1.11.2022.

This is a perfect time to acquire exciting new Finnish titles – see some of our fall highlights below, and access our whole catalogue here!

Inherited Land by Maria Turtschaninoff

Following in the tradition of family sagas like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

The roots of man and forest are intertwined in the depths of the earth.

Maria Turtschaninoff’s first adult fiction novel Inherited Land explores a current topic, climate crisis, in a unique way. It depicts human relationship with nature across centuries, across generations and is a reminder of human’s relationship to the nature and what it could possibly look like in the future.

 The book is beautiful like a piece of jewellery and rich like a forest. [–] The episodic grip and the enormous reach of time makes Inherited Land a string of stories rather than one single one. In this world, Turtschaninoff paints the weight of historical reality heavier than that of fantasy even though there are fantasy elements too.”
Freja Rudels, Åbo Underrättelser newspaper

Download the English materials for INHERITED LAND here!

 

The Enchantment by Riikka Pulkkinen

This shiningly beautiful novel is an autopsy of girlhood, power, and truth.

Philippa Laakso, aged seventeen, is found dead in her home yard. Nothing suggests a crime, and everyone who knew her is certain she wasn’t suicidal. On the other hand, everyone who knew her seems to hold a differing view of her. The investigation sees everyone who knew her being interviewed, but behind every view and story there is Philippa’s influence. She still has the people around her in a sharp grip: her friend, ex-boyfriend, teacher, neighbours.   Riikka Pulkkinen’s anticipated novel examines the power and comfort of make-believe and the thin line between love and play.

 I’d want to write long and in-depth about [the novel], but I’ll try to hold myself in check. Simply put: The Enchantment impressed me. [–] The reader is given a lot to think about with both the content and the narration.”
Tuijata culture blog

Download the English materials for THE ENCHANTMENT here! 

 

The Italian Game by Vera Vala

“The heart of darkness is in the human mind.”
Elena Ferrante meets Jo Nesbø in this new crime series!

The Greater Milan area lives in fear. A mysterious stalker is terrorizing people, and a serial killer called the Harlequin is picking their victims, branding them with jewellery. Are the two cases connected?

Salla Kotka, starting her career as a forensic psychologist, gets pulled into the threatening chain of events as she begins working for a defense attorney. Their client is the suspected serial killer, and Salla needs to help the defense uncover the truth.

 The Italian Game is a true cornucopia. I loved the descriptions of Italy, its society and the lifestyle of the Italians. [–] I liked the charaters, they are considerably more well-rounded and psychologically more sound than those usually seen in crime novels. [The Finnish] Salla Kotka is an interesting protagonist both for her intelligence and for her traumas and darkness..”
 Marin kirjaillat blog

Download the English materials for THE ITALIAN GAME here!

 

The Night of Ancient Lights by Hanna Meretoja

For readers of Rachel Cusk and Maggie Nelson

Elea has just heard that she is seriously ill and wants to share with friends the sense of urgency that shakes her to her core. The push-and-pull of hope and despair permeates the narration that flows in the rhythm of the sea, in dialogue with Virginia Woolf’s Waves and Tove Jansson’s Summer Book. It captures the soul of the Finnish archipelago – the world’s largest island labyrinth.

The tensions between the characters live and find new ways, as they need to come face-to-face with painful ideas of loss, ending and the limitations of life. [–] Despite everything, in the night of the ancient lights, there is hope and a strong lust for life.”
Anna Ferrante in Anna Magazine

Download the English materials for THE NIGHT OF ANCIENT LIGHTS here!

 

In Your Shadow by Martta Kaukonen

A new thriller by Martta Kaukonen whose debut Follow the Butterfly sold to 13 territories! 

The harassment of women should be kept silent no longer, a small group of activists declares and demands justice. But at what price?   When #metoo spread through the media like wildfire, many victims of harassment felt hopeful – now we can talk about it, now the change begins. But the fire died and things did not change. Traumas did not disappear and justice is yet to come.

Martta Kaukonen’s In Your Shadow is an irresistibly convincing work. Narratively it’s gripping: the story reveals, in a well-thoughtout order, small pieces of the characters’ past and motives. A recommendation.”
Dekkarihelmenkalastaja bookstagram

Download the English materials for IN YOUR SHADOW here!

INHERITED LAND

Arvejord
Förlaget, August 2020, 371 pp.

Rights sold: FINLAND (Swedish): Förlaget (orig.), FINLAND (Finnish): Tammi, AZERBAIJAN: Alatoran

 

 

THE ENCHANTMENT

Lumo
Otava, September 2022, 383 pp.

Rights sold: FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

 

 

THE ITALIAN GAME

Italialainen peli
WSOY, August 2022, 414 pp.

Rights sold: FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

 

 

THE NIGHT OF THE ANCIENT LIGHTS

Elotulet
WSOY, June 2022, 462 pp.

Rights sold: FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

 

 

IN YOUR SHADOW

Sinun varjossasi
WSOY, July 2022, 276 pp.

Rights sold: FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

About author


Hanna Meretoja

Hanna Meretoja is an internationally renowned literary scholar, a professor of comparative literature, and narrative theorist whose work has been published by prestigious academic publishers. Her monographs include The Ethics of Storytelling: Narrative Hermeneutics, History, and the Possible (2018, Oxford University Press). Her work is mainly in the fields of narrative studies, cultural memory studies, and trauma studies. As a novelist, Meretoja has a unique lyrical voice that seamlessly threads cultural theory and philosophy into a poetic, ruptured narrative with an acute sense of lived experience.

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.

About author


Martta Kaukonen

Martta Kaukonen (1976) lives in Helsinki. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a film critic, whose reviews have been published in both Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and a popular women’s weekly magazine Me Naiset. Martta has a master’s degree in arts. She has interviewed the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Bieber. Martta met her husband at his second hand bookshop and fell in love. Alongside writing, Martta loves psychological thrillers, film noir, flea markets, abandoned houses and travelling. 

About author


Riikka Pulkkinen

Riikka Pulkkinen (b. 1980) is one of the top names in Finnish literature. Her debut novel T