A future classic, Finlandia Prize winner and bestselling novel 36 URNS: A History of Being Wrong by multiple award-winning author Sirpa Kähkönen will be published by HOST, one of the largest publishing houses in the Czech Republic. The deal was closed by Elina Ahlbäck at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency Agency in co-operation with our wonderful co-agent Antonija Radić at Corto Literary.

Here’s what Lucie Bregantová, translated fiction editor in Host, Czechia, had to say about Kähkönen:

“Reading Sirpa Kähkönen 36 Urns is a true literary feast. The balance between introspective ruminations and narrative parts is very delicate and gives the text an immense emotional impact. The book is about silence, pain and trauma but also about understanding and love, showing hope in places than at first sight seem impenetrably dark. Host publishing is extremely proud to have the honour to introduce Sirpa Kähkönen to Czech readers, accompanied by other exquisite writers like Annie Ernaux, Tove Ditlevsen or Pirkko Saisio.”

Rights are still available in the UK and US, Poland, Italy, Denmark, France…

DOWNLOAD ALL MATERIALS HERE

About 36 URNS:

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.

“The book is a skillful literature work, perceptive and insightful. Confession-like. The prose is clear and precise. [—] The personal experience of the author grows into a universal reach, and she finds something globally applicable about humans, hate, anger, lies, hope, dreams and their crumbling, death. This brings forth a masterpiece, which is worth living for. ”
– Jorma Uotinen, Finlandia Literature Prize Grand Juror

We are thrilled to let you know that the Azerbaijani rights for Sirpa Kähkönen’s Finlandia Prize-winning and #1 bestselling novel 36 URNS: A History of Being Wrong have been acquired by Qanun! The deal was closed by Sten-Erik Tammemäe at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency. Most recently, rights were sold to Blessing Verlag (PRH) in Germany

Qanun, established in 1992, is one of the biggest publishing houses in Azerbaijan. Their list includes Nobel Prize-winning authors such as Herta Müller, Orhan Pamuk, Alice Munro, and Svetlana Alexievich, and internationally bestselling authors such as J. K. Rowling, Paulo Coelho, Cecelia Ahern, Dan Brown, Jo Nesbø, Haruki Murakami and others.

36 URNS has become one of the absolute highlights of recent Finnish literature:

• It is currently #1 bestseller in Finland in printed fiction and it is #2 on the Finnish bestseller chart across all formats and genres!
• The novel has sold more than 50,000 copies in Finland and is currently in its 6th print in Finland!
• It was the #1 bestselling title of 2023 in Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, the most prestigious bookstore in Finland!
• It won the Finlandia Prize in fiction literature, the most prestigious literary award in Finland!
• It is nominated for the Runeberg Literature Prize of 2024 and was nominated for the Savonia Prize of 2023!
• The novel has received universal acclaim from the critics and the readers!

36 URNS has so far been sold to 6 territories, but rights are still available for US, UK, Italy, France, Poland, Netherlands, etc!

Download the materials for 36 URNS here!

36 Urns: A History of Being Wrong

Sirpa Kähkönen

Winner of the Finlandia Prize 2023!
Nominated for the Savonia Prize 2023 & Runeberg Prize 2024!

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

• “A masterpiece worth living for” –  Jorma Uotinen, Finlandia Prize judge

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.

We are thrilled to let you know that the Hungarian rights for Sirpa Kähkönen’s latest novel 36 URNS: A History of Being Wrong have been acquired by Polar! The deal was closed by Sten-Erik Tammemäe at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.

Polar are a Hungarian publishing house that specializes in publishing works from Nordic authors. Their authors include, e.g., Jon Fosse, Mika Waltari, Karen Blixen, August Strindberg, Asta Olivia Nordenhof, Pirkko Saisio, Leena Krohn, Dag Solstad, and Vigdis Hjorth.

“The novel 36 URNS is completely enchanting. It rarely happens that when we start a book with high expectations, we are not disappointed, but in this case, disappointment is out of the question, the story and the language are also brilliant. The narrator is visited in her small apartment by her recently deceased mother accompanied by the daughter of Tuonela, a mythical figure from the Kalevala. Speaking to her mother, sorting out her mother’s legacy, the writer unravels and analyzes her complicated and tragic relationship with her mother with the help of 36 selected objects and concepts. This clarification could not happen during the mother’s lifetime for several reasons. Of course, her mother did not live in a vacuum, she was determined by the history of her parents and grandparents – which is also the Finnish history of the 20th century. All of this is written in the novel with unbelievable humanity, empathy, accuracy and uncompromising honesty, resulting from historical research. [—] Her language is versatile, precise, and emotional, rich, seasoned with many dialect words. The book is both a family chronicle and a philosophical essay – a writer analyzing herself from the outside and the inside and coming to the realization that the omniscient narrator does not exist. Only a truly mature writer can create this.”
– Zsófia Dériné Stark, publisher, Polar; Olga Huotari, translator

Last week, Sirpa Kähkönen’s masterful novel was nominated for the Finlandia Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Finland! The title has received universal acclaim from the critics and the readers as the crowning achievement of the author’s career so far!

“Kähkönen’s language is in constant movement, it spins from the past to the present without effort, beautifully like a dancer on stage, illuminated by a spotlight. The book is beautiful and without shame. It does not ask the reader to walk along, but forces one to look: this happened.”
– Mari Paalosalo-Jussinmäki in Eeva magazine

“Not only is the narrative structure [of the novel], structured around the wake [of the author’s mother] and the 36 urns and objects symbolic, metaphorical and intertextually charged, the language also is poetic and rich in associations. In a superb way, Kähkönen brings together influences from historical prose, biographical storytelling, diary quotes, memories, myth, and folk poetry into a melodic fabric of language that moves seamlessly between the different levels of the story. In this way, Kähkönen connects her work to a variety of literary traditions and shows how myths and stories have always been a way for people to explain and make sense of the world and their own place in it, along with the risk that the story we tell is wrong or deficient.”
– Kaneli Kabrell in Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper

“Although Kähkönen is still extremely meticulous about the truthfulness of the time and characters that she deals with, 36 URNS is, in my opinion, more poetic and mythical than its predecessors. It is impossible to fit it into any specific genre. It breaks the narrow definitions and moves effortlessly from genre to genre. [—] I’ve always admired Kähkönen’s smooth use of words and infallible sense of rhythm. This time, my attention was especially drawn to her skill in using, e.g., the parallelism familiar from runic songs in her style. [—] When [her] language is at its most fervent, it reminds one of enchanting. When it calms down and lingers, it approached meditation. [—], I willingly admit that, when reading 36 URNS, tears were brought to my eyes more than once.”
– Raija Hakala on Kirjareppu book blog

With the latest sale to Hungary, 36 URNS has now been sold to 3 territories!

Rights are available in France, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Poland, US, UK, etc.!

Download the materials for 36 URNS here!

36 Urns: A History of Being Wrong

Sirpa Kähkönen

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

Nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2023! 

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.