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Jouko Sipila, 39, from Finland but now living in Independence, MN, has begun publishing English translations of crime novels written by his brother Jarkko, a journalist in Helsinki. This fall, Sipila's publishing company, Ice Cold Crime, will begin publishing a second Finnish mystery writer.
Sipila said it's a wide-open field in the US because Finnish publishers don't market their books to American readers. Jarkko's hard-boiled cop stories are set in Helsinki and are laced with sardonic humor. His first book published by Ice Cold Crime was "Helsinki Homicide: Against the Wall," won the 2009 Finnish Crime Fiction of the Year Award, and is one of a series of nine novels about Detective Lt. Kari Takamäki. The translation into English was by Peter Ylitalo Leppa who translated about 300 pages in three months. Translating Finnish to English is tricky because the languages aren't related and have no similarities.
Ice Cold Crime's print runs are modest at 3,000 books per title. A few hundred are shipped to Finland for the tourist market, and the rest are sold primarily in Minnesota. There's a ready audience on the Iron Range where many Finns are farmers and work in the mines - they will devour anything Finnish. In the Twin Cities, books are sold at Once Upon a Crime bookstore and the FinnStyle home furnishings retailer. In Hibbing, they are sold at Howard Street Booksellers.
Sipila said it's a wide-open field in the US because Finnish publishers don't market their books to American readers. Jarkko's hard-boiled cop stories are set in Helsinki and are laced with sardonic humor. His first book published by Ice Cold Crime was "Helsinki Homicide: Against the Wall," won the 2009 Finnish Crime Fiction of the Year Award, and is one of a series of nine novels about Detective Lt. Kari Takamäki. The translation into English was by Peter Ylitalo Leppa who translated about 300 pages in three months. Translating Finnish to English is tricky because the languages aren't related and have no similarities.
Ice Cold Crime's print runs are modest at 3,000 books per title. A few hundred are shipped to Finland for the tourist market, and the rest are sold primarily in Minnesota. There's a ready audience on the Iron Range where many Finns are farmers and work in the mines - they will devour anything Finnish. In the Twin Cities, books are sold at Once Upon a Crime bookstore and the FinnStyle home furnishings retailer. In Hibbing, they are sold at Howard Street Booksellers.