Fiction
Eva Frantz: You will not take my child
Aufbau, Berlin, publication: 6/2025, translator: Leena Flegler,
Helsinki Literary Agency (Ungen min får du aldrig, Schildts & Söderströms 2023).
crime fiction, FinNoir
FILI Reads A drainage well next to the children's playground floods and the cause will soon be discovered. Detective Inspector Anna Glad is balancing the pressures of home and work, and the new don't make things any easier. You Will Not Take My Child effectively combines the secrets of the past with the pressures of modern life, successfully portraying the state of child protection and offering a close-up view of life in a small town and its inhabitants.
Susanna Hast: Body of evidence
Nautilus, Hamburg, publication: 09/2025, translator: Tanja Küddelsman,
Helsinki Literary Agency (Ruumis/huoneet, S&S, 2022).
literary fiction
FILI Reads Body of Evidence by Susanna Hast is an interesting novel that deals with the author’s own personal history. She studies herself, trying to learn the truth of what happened to her as a teenager when she was a victim of sexual violence. She tried to cope and thought she was doing fine, but later noticed that things were not so straightforward. She courageously seeks out her forgotten past and examines this void in her history through the memories of her body. It is a bold novel and very impressive. Recommended reading!
Martta Kaukonen: Traumatisiert
Heyne, München, publication: 03/2025, translator: Gabriele Schrey-Vasara, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Hengissä, WSOY 2023).
crime fiction
FILI Reads Sequel to the critically acclaimed Spiegel bestseller Therapiert. Five years have passed since the events of Therapiert. Ira and Arto have teamed up and both work as crime journalists. Everything’s going nicely, until they start suspecting there’s a serial killer on the loose in Helsinki.
Katja Kettu, käsitelty
Katja Kettu: The Investigations of a Certain Cat
Weissbooks, Berlin, publication: 3/2025, translator: Tanja Küddelsman, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Erään kissan tutkimuksia, Otava 2023).
literary fiction
FILI Reads A mysterious Detective, a Cat, drops into the author's life from the heavens at the darkest moment of her life: she has lost the child she was expecting – again – and with it everything, her ability to write. With no light in the future, the Author begins to look to the past for a solution, by peering into the life of her great-grandmother Eeva during the turbulent years of the country's independence. A magnificent, captivating novel about life's greatest dreams, which you are forced to learn to replace with new ones, again and again. The Investigations of One Cat also shows that words have power, that stories can create justice and new truths in the world.
Sirpa Kähkönen: 36 Urns: A History of Being Wrong
Blessing Verlag, München, publication: fall 2025, translator: Stefan Moster, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (36 uurnaa. Väärässä olemisen historia, Siltala 2023).
literary fiction
FILI Reads Kähkönen’s strongly autobiographical novel is beautiful and moving. It is a direct, unadorned speech from a daughter to a dead mother. After her mother’s death, the daughter discovers that their small family grave plot can hold thirty-six urns. So the daughter supplies her mother with thirty-six grave offerings – objects and stories – through which she makes an inventory of her mother’s life and youth as well as of transgenerational traumas, including her own childhood in the shadow of a violent and unpredictable mother. The most important thing, however, is the desire to understand – and loving memories.
Tuomas Niskakangas. Kuva Jonne Räsänen/ Otava 2020.
Tuomas Niskakangas: The Eagle
Bastei Lübbe, Köln, publication: fall 2025, translator: Anke Michler-Janhunen, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Kotka, Otava 2024).
crime fiction, FinNoir
Max Seeck: Milo
Bastei Lübbe, Köln, publication: 6/2025, translator: Gabriele Schrey-Vasara, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Merkitty, Tammi 2024).
crime fiction, FinNoir
Pajtim Statovci: Bolla
Luchterhand, München, publication: spring 2025, translator: Stefan Moster, Wylie Agency (Bolla, Otava 2019).
literary fiction
FILI Reads April 1995: Arsim is a twenty-two-year-old, recently-married student at the University of Pristina, keeping his head down to gain his degree in an institution deeply hostile to Albanians. In a café he meets a young medical student, and Serb, named Miloš which leads to two milestones in Arsim’s married life within a week: his wife announces her first pregnancy, and he commits his first act of violence against her. After these febrile beginnings, Arsim and Miloš’s affair is derailed by the outbreak of war, which sends Arsim’s fledgling family abroad and the sensitive Miloš into a traumatising military career. Years later, deported back to Pristina after a spell in prison, Arsim begins a search for his lost love but the Miloš with whom he is finally reunited is not the man he once knew. Entwined with their story is the legend of the Bolla, a demonic serpent known as Kulshedra, which is traditionally released only once a year to devour everything in sight over the course of a single day; an unearthly tale that gives Arsim and Miloš a language through which to reflect on their desperate relationship.
Arttu Tuominen: The Liberator
Bastei Lübbe, Köln, publication: fall 2025, translator: Anke Michler-Janhunen, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Vapahtaja, WSOY 2023).
crime fiction, FinNoir
FILI Reads The fifth part of the Delta series takes us to the roots of yet another social ill. Surveillance cameras witness as more outcasts set themselves on fire as a silent figure watches on from the sidelines. Paloviita and partners investigate the arson murders while at the same time Delta Team Inspector Susanna Manner fights for her son, who has become entangled in a dangerous drug organisation. Tuominen has written another fine detective story, driven by a genuinely human interest in the characters and their lives.
Children's & Young Adult Books
Kaisa Paasto: Anni und der geheimnisvolle Schatz
Loewe, Bindlach, publication: 3/2025, translator: Tanja Küddelsman, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Anni kaverinkesyttäjä suolaisilla vesillä, Tammi 2022).
Elina Pitkäkangas
Elina Pitkäkangas: Sang
cbj Verlag, München, publication: spring 2025, translators Sarah Onkels / Claudia Nierste, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Sang, WSOY 2022).
FILI Reads Sang is a fascinating fantasy novel for young adults and other discerning readers. In the totalitarian Fusang, set in East Asia, the state monitors its inhabitants through a wrist-mounted device. The gap between the population classes is staggering and young Kong Dawei is forced to fight against an overwhelming opponent to preserve his own morals and values.
Salla Savolainen
Salla Savolainen: Concrete!
Carl Hanser, München, publication: spring 2025, translator: Elina Kritzokat, Rights & Brands (Betonia!, WSOY 2022).
Salla Savolainen
Salla Savolainen: Junk!
Carl Hanser, München, publication: fall 2025, translator: Elina Kritzokat, Rights & Brands (Romua!, WSOY 2023).
Arttu Unkari & Kai Vaalio: Dad Man and the Exploding Poop
Mixtvision, München, publication: spring 2025, translator: Sarah Onkels, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Isämies ja räjähtävä kakka, Otava 2020).
Arttu Unkari & Kai Vaalio: Dad Man and the Evil Little Brother
Mixtvision, München, publication: spring 2025, translator: Sarah Onkels, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Isämies ja paha pikkuveli, Otava 2021).
Non-Fiction
Reetta Ranta: Timeless Nordic Rituals: Bringing Purpose and Joy to Modern Life
Goldmann, München, 6/2025, translator: Anu Katariina Lindemann, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Rituaalikirja — Etsijän opas, SKS Kirjat 2023).
