Finland is Cool, Finland is Happy!

Finland is cool, Finland is happy: We are a small country of only 5,5 million inhabitants. Yet we have the BEST public library in the world - OODI and we are again the HAPPIEST nation in the world! Maybe books and happiness are related? Is reading good literature one factor in our happiness?

Talking about the import and export of literature. Finland 'imports' a lot of international literature. We have excellent translators who bring world literature to Finnish readers. Good literature opens doors to different cultures and countries worldwide. It seems that in the course of last twelve months I have red a bit more than 50 books from all over the world, some translated into Finnish, some in the original language. SEE my read in 2019 list. The writers come from:

Albania, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy. Ireland, 
Japan, Norway, Nicaragua, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South-Africa, Spain, Sweden, 
The Soviet Union, The US, Turkey, UK & Venezuela.

Finland was Guest of Honor at Frankfurt Book Fair (2014). That status ended up in a considerable increase in literature rights sold abroad. FILI (Finnish Literature Exchange) is an organisation that promotes the export of literature from Finland by facilitating professional contacts and serving as a “home base” for translators of Finnish literature. Now they have started a new project called FINNLAND. COOL. HAPPY.

Look at this interesting link showing statistics worldwide of translated Finnish literature. The ten top countries are Germany - 1268, Estonia - 855, Sweden - 853, Denmark - 531, Norway - 518, France - 504, Hungary - 390, Poland - 340 and Spain - 302 with books. Followed later on the list by UK with 288 and The United States with 260 books.

Pajtim Statovci (b. 1990) is one of Finland's rising new literature stars. His first novel, My Cat, Yugoslavia / Amazon, became internationally acclaimed and was praised by The New York Times and The Guardian, among others. Statovci's second novel, The Heart of Tirana, was published in the United States in April 2019 under the name Crossing / Amazon. Bolla is Statovci’s brand new third novel, here with the fantastic Finnish cover. Bolla is scheduled to be published in the English version in 1921! It is very interesting how the covers differ in different markets. The international representation of Statovci will continue to be managed by The Wylie Agency. 

Two female writers represented by The Ahlbäck Agency 

& their rights sold & the books I have read:

The Women I Think About at Night  by Mia Kankimäki (b. 1971) ****

China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, 

Netherlands, Norway, Russia, United States

An exciting and passionate non-fiction book about some of the bravest and most inspiring women throughout history: Renaissance female painters Artemisia Gentilechi, Lavinia Fontana,
Beatrice d-Este etc., Karen Blixen, Yayoi Kusama, Isabella Bird...
This book is to be blamed for me traveling to Florence in three weeks ❤︎

My Friend Natalia by Laura Lindstedt (b. 1976) ****

Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Sweden, United States

My Friend Natalia is a thrilling exploration of gender, sexuality, and power following 

an ambitious therapist and a patient with a unique psychological obsession who become 

entangled in a complicated, explosive relationship.

As a book blogger I belong to a community of nearly 200 Finnish book bloggers. 

We are many, considered that our Finnish market is pretty small.

I know that some of my blog friends are eager readers and

I always want to spread the joy of reading & literature!

Photo: EMMA

At EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art there is an exhibition On The Wall,

all about Michael Jackson, have not seen yet but maybe I will.

We Are The World from 1985, including Michael Jackson

// ALL SEASONS
// MOSAIC MONDAY
// FOTO-TUNES