Praise to Cruel is the Night

In Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest daily newspaper in Scandinavia, the critic Juhani Karila compares Cruel is the Night to The Dinner by Herman Koch.

“A thriller that lasts the duration of a dinner is a compelling setup. The diners’ repartee and the flashbacks revealing their relationships call to mind Herman Koch’s The Dinner, translated into Finnish last year. Hämäläinen’s novel takes things to a completely different level, however. – The reader follows events safely through a wall of Plexiglas, holding back laughter but absolutely absorbed.”

 

Finished!

One month of intensive editing in Edinburgh paid off: Cruel Is The night is ready!

The extraordinary murder mystery will come out earlier than expected: estimated arrival August, 12th! A Finnish reading copy (pdf and pocket book) is already available.

“Starts like Agatha Christie, turns into Alfred Hitchcock, and ends up with pure Quentin Tarantino.”

Cruel Is the Night coming out in August

Karo’s newest novel is a murder mystery taking place in The Shard, the tallest residential building in Western Europe. Cruel Is the Night is not a financial thriller like The Buyout and The Bailout, although one of the four protagonists is an ex-banker.

Cruel Is the Night starts as an Agatha Christie murder mystery, develops into an Alfred Hitchcock thriller and ends up with a Quentin-Tarantino-like scenery.

More here!

Hooray for Helsinki! nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize

Hurraa Helsinki – ikioma kaupunki! (Hooray for Helsinki! Our Very Own City) has been nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize 2012.

The Prize Committee:

“A milk jug gets broken in the morning, sending the whole family on a tram to the Hietaniemi flea market in a search of a replacement. The journey turns into a cheerful excursion to summery Helsinki and Finnish design. Each pair of pages forms an entity with the text reading like a small prose poem, which is why the book does not need to be read from cover to cover but can be dipped into. One of the clever ideas of the book is a board game with a design theme. Hurray Helsinki! works as a picture book for the little ones, but with its high-quality execution it will fascinate readers of any age. While a little reader concentrates on studying the hustle and bustle in the Esplanade Park, an adult reads about the statues in the park from the information box. And why not use the book as a real travel guide to Helsinki?”

Karo takes part in Literary Death Match in Helsinki

Literary Death Match arrives in Helsinki on October 25th!

The night’s fierce foursome of authors — who will read their own work for seven minutes or less — include spoken word mastermind Suvi Valkonen (a.k.a. Yavis), Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize-nominee Eeva Rohas (author of  The Deep End), 2012 Tampere Literary Prize-winner Karo Hämäläinen (author of The Buyout and The Bailout), and Tiiliskivi and Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize-winning author Marko Hautala (The Self-Illuminated Ones and Shrouds)!

They’ll shine before a panel of three all-star arbiters, including the amazing TV presenter Baba Lybeck, director/screenwriter/novelist Markus Nummi (author of the 2010 Finlandia Award-nominated Karkkipäivä), and one more to be revealed very soon!

Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga. Co-produced by Erin Valerio.

Where: Korjaamo Culture Factory, Töölönkatu 51 a-b, Helsinki
When: Doors at 7, Show at 8:05 (sharp); afterdrinks after.

The Bailout is out!

Kolmikulma (The Bailout) is out in Finland! Published by WSOY, Karo Hämäläinen’s second financial thriller is available in hard cover, e-book and audio book (cd and mp3).

Some newspapers have published their reviews already today.

“Hämäläinen’s brilliant narrative brings outs the rules of the economic world, players and poor politicians stuck in the quagmire of capitalism. — Behind Hämäläinen’s financial thrillers can be seen a tendency to illustrate the large-scale gambling made possible by political stupidity”, Jari O. Hiltunen writes in Satakunnan Kansa (in Finnish here).

The Bailout is the Book of the Week at Elisa Kirja

Kolmikulma (The Bailout) is the book of the week at Elisa Kirja.

Elisa Kirja, a subsidiary of the telecommunications operator Elisa, is Finland’s biggest e-book store. Kolmikulma is for sale as e-book before it comes out in hard cover later this month.

Erottaja (The Buyout) was an e-book best seller in Finland.

Spanish media excited in Calle Erottaja

Spanish media has been very interested in Karo Hämäläinen’s novel Calle Erottaja (The Buyout). During three days in Madrid and Barcelona, Hämäläinen met his Spanish publisher Ediciones B and gave 13 interviews. Most of them are available online – links below. Hämäläinen was interviewed also by El Mundo and La Vanguardia.

EFE (Spanish press agency, article published by numerous media): “Calle Erottaja”, un estudio de la naturaleza humana con la crisis como fondo

El País (Spain’s most influential newspaper): ‘Calle Erottaja’, el thriller financiero que llega desde el país más insolidario

Expansión (Spain’s leading business newspaper): La Avaricia rompió el saco

ABC (Spain’s third largest newspaper): Karo Hämäläinen: “La literatura no puede mentir tanto como los artículos de prensa”

El Periódico (Spain’s fifth largest newspaper): Karo Hämäläinen: “Debemos creer que la crisis se solucionará”

El Periódico (same article in Catalan): Karo Hämäläinen: “Hem de creure que la crisi se solucionarà”

El Confidencial (Spain’s leading online newspaper): “Sabían que nos llevaban a la catástrofe pero les daba igual, querían ganar más dinero”

Periodista Digital (online newspaper): “Me ha sorprendido la cantidad de sucursales bancarias que hay en España, en Finlandia cerramos la mitad”

El Punt Avuí (the leading Catalan newspaper): “Després de la crisi hem après que s’ha d’estalviar”

Ábrete libro (literary web site): Entrevista a Karo Hämäläinen

El Tiempo (Spain’s “Time”): Karo Hämäläinen

Erottaja available in all formats

The paperback edition of Erottaja (The Buyout) has come out! Erottaja is now available in all formats: hardcover (3rd edition), paperback, e-book and audiobook (both cd and mp3, read by Kari Ketonen).

Calle Erottaja – The Buyout comes out in Spain

Spain wins the European Championship in football and Calle Erottaja (The Buyout) comes out!

Calle Erottaja is Ediciones B’s key title for the Spanish holiday period. The financial thriller is published in the valued Bruguera collection. See Ediciones B’s catalogue.

“The young author, Karo Hämäläinen, has revolutionized Finnish literature. Calle Erottaja examines, in an elaborate and powerful manner, the intricacies of the financial world and the terrible consequences that systematic corruption has brought about in recent years. Following films such as Inside Job or Margin Call, Calle Erottaja is a financial thriller written by a multi-talented economic journalist. Calle Erottaja tells the naked and honest truth about the dynamics of an economic system that has exploded in the face of an unprecedented global crisis.”