Topelius award for Anniina Mikama’s THE SAGE!

Anniina Mikama has just received the Topelius award for her capturing YA novel THE SAGE (Myrrys, WSOY 2021)!

The jury’s praise:
“Anniina Mikama’s The Sage is a song of praise for Finnish nature that draws on folk tradition. The protagonist, an orphaned boy Niilo, ends up as an apprentice to a frightening and mighty sage. The work is timeless. Thanks to its subject matter, fluent narration and memorable characters, the book has the ingredients to be recognised as a classic. The story grows into a reading novel that is so vividly written that the milieu cannot be separated from the characters. The accuracy and precision of Mikama’s nature observations are second to none, but most of all, she is a storyteller. Anniina Mikama weaves a dose of Finnish mythology into her orphan’s growth story. The result is both a traditional and fresh fantasy novel.”