The Winter Job by Antti Tuomainen (Paperback Release)

 

The Winter Job by Antti Tuomainen.

Translated by David Hackston.

Published in paperback 24th September 2026 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Sofas, secrets and a snowbound road to trouble…

Helsinki, 1982. Recently divorced postal worker Ilmari Nieminen has promised his daughter a piano for Christmas, but with six days to go – and no money – he's desperate.

A last-minute job offers a solution: transport a valuable antique sofa to Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost town in Finland.

With the sofa secured in the back of his van, Ilmari stops at a gas station, and an old friend turns up, offering to fix his faulty wipers, on the condition that he tags along. Soon after, a persistent Saab 96 appears in the rearview mirror. And then a bright-yellow Lada.

That's when Ilmari realises that he is transporting something truly special.

And that's when Ilmari realises he might be in serious trouble…

A darkly funny and unexpectedly moving thriller about friendship, love and death – The Winter Job tears through the frozen landscape of northern Finland in a beat-up van with bad steering, worse timing, and everything to lose…

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Helsinki, 1982. Postal worker, Ilmari Nieminen has a problem: he has promised his daughter a piano for Christmas, but the financial demands of his recent divorce mean the coffers are bare. With only a few days to go until Christmas Eve, he is determined not to let her down, but how is he to lay his hands on the money he needs at such short notice? Then the perfect opportunity come his way when he lands a job transporting an antique sofa to Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost town in Finland.

With the sofa secured in the back of an old van, and plans to take in a couple of stops on the way to deal with unfinished business, Ilmari sets off into an increasingly heavy snow storm. Stopping off at a petrol station for assistance with his broken windscreen wipers, he meets up with childhood friend Antero, who fixes the problem in exchange for a lift.

As the pair head north, they notice that they are not alone. A mysterious green Saab 96, and an almost luminous yellow Lada seem to be in hot pursuit... and when they inspect the contents of the van, they realise that this is no ordinary sofa, and no ordinary job.

How I love an Antti Tuomainen book, and this brand new gem was an absolute festive delight. The story follows the progress of Ilmari and Antero's deliciously absurd road trip to Finalnd's icy north, cutting back and forth from their slow-burn, buddy story to the darkly comic agendas of their pursuers - a misfit pair of communist revolutionaries (one of whom is obsessed with the soap opera Dallas), and a violent outlaw with major anger issues.

Along the way, there are oodles of thrills, spills, and hilarious cock-ups as the assassins on their trail do their very best to wrest the precious sofa from Ilmari, against a cracking (mostly) 1980's soundtrack, and Antero proves his worth in his role as 'shotgun' (quite literally on occasion). Pitch black humour Tuomainen style is the order of the day, which gave me lots of chuckles, and the story is flooded with lovely themes about friendship and loneliness that strum mercilessly on your heartstrings in the way he does so well. Have the tissues handy for the touching moments, because you will need them.

David Hackston does a wonderful job translating this novel, as anticipated, and he pulls an absolute blinder when it comes to the choice words and phrases he uses to hit Tuomainen's farcical mark - particularly when it comes to the opening lines of the chapters about Otto, the wrathful outlaw, which are a riot!

Quintessential Tuomainen madness with a heartfelt core of pure gold, and with the magic of Christmas too. Perfection!

**Review originally published November 2025.

The Winter Job is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can also support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a review copy of this book, and Random Things Tours for inviting me to join this blog tour.

About the author:

Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. In 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime-genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller and has been released as a TV series, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland (2018) was an immense success, with The Times calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’, and Little Siberia (2019) was shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA International Dagger, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The Rabbit Factor, the prequel to The Moose Paradox and The Beaver Theory, will soon be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios.

About the translator:

David Hackston is a British Translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. Notable publications include The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Maria Peura’s coming-of-age novel At the Edge of Light, Johanna Sinisalo’s eco-thriller Birdbrain, two crime novels by Matti Joensuu and Kati Hiekkapelto’s Anna Fekete series (which currently includes The Hummingbird, The Defenceless and The Exiled, all published by Orenda Books). He also translates Antti Tuomainen’s stories. In 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation. David is also a professional countertenor and a founding member of the English Vocal Consort of Helsinki. Follow David on Twitter @Countertenorist

The Marchesa by Sarah Dunant

 

The Marchesa by Sarah Dunant.

Published in paperback 7th October 2026 by Ravenna Press.

From the cover of the book:

From the acclaimed author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan comes a vibrant exploration of the Italian Renaissance through the character of Isabella d'Este, the first female art collector and patron of her time. Her famed collection has long since dispersed or been lost, but what remains is her correspondence - thousands of letters preserved in a deconsecrated church and convent in the archive of Mantua.

'For the longest time after my death, those who claimed an interest in history showed little interest in me. Or indeed women like me. Nor did they seem to care much about the wonder of our city states: Mantua, Ferrara, Urbino. We may never have been as grand or powerful as Venice or Rome or Florence but our great age - this thing that is now so valued and trumpeted as the Renaissance - would have been a much lesser affair without us.'

The Marchesa is Renaissance history at its most vivid, an immersive, multi-layered experience that mixes historical fiction with biography, scholarship and imagery, of both the people and the time. It is also a meditation on our attitude to history itself, challenging how far we can set aside our own values and certainties when it comes to understanding those who grew out of very different cultural soil.

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Isabella d'Este was born on 19th May 1474, the daughter of Ferdinand I, the Aragonese King of Naples, and Isabella of Clermont. From a young age it was obvious that her determination and intelligence would suit her perfectly for the kind of life she was born to live, and on her marriage to Francesco II Gonzaga, Marchese of Mantua, in 1490, she needed to draw on both to fulfil her duties as Marchesa.

Sarah Dunant tells Isabella's story in an unconventional way, beginning with the voice of her ghost, which haunts the archive that stores the many letters she wrote and received during her lifetime. As she looks over the shoulders of the latest researcher keen to unravel the secrets of her life, Isabella takes you back in time to the moments each document refers to.

The book splits nicely into sections that cover her life before and after marriage, and the many difficulties she negotiated as Marchesa of Mantua during times of war, pestilence, and the machinations of others, all the way to her death when the Dowager Marchesa. The story unfolds like a sequence of examinations of a journal, divided up by visits to the researcher in the archive, and excerpts from Isabella's letters. This makes for slow and reflective going at first, but gradually Isabella's voice captivates you, immersing you in the trials of marriage, motherhood, and the things expected her. By the time the disreputable Borgias entered the fray, I was hooked!

Isabella offers a fascinating perspective on a time of considerable political turmoil, dominated by powerplays between competing houses; the ambitions of France, Italy and Spain; and the influence of the church - all through the eyes of a wily and resourceful woman. The role of women behind the scenes when it comes to succession and diplomacy is especially interesting; and there is a wealth of detail about fashion, art, sexual politics, and the consequences of sexual impropriety. She was a prodigious collector of art, and a patron of many of the artists whose names have become synonymous with the Renaissance too, and Dunant takes time to go into detail about Isabella's passion to acquire her collection.

If there is anything I am unsure about here it is Dunant's choice to examine Isabella's story with the addition of a modern, unnamed, female researcher. The segues in the archive do tend to disrupt the flow of the story and introduce a separation between Isabella and the real meat of the novel - particularly when it comes to the impetus that builds up around the antics of the stellar cast of notable figures who make an appearance. However, you do get an intriguing extra dimension this way, which delves into the nature of archival research, and how individual researchers introduce bias. It also gives Isabella an opportunity to comment on episodes from her own life with hindsight. I will leave it to you to decide whether a straight-up historical retelling is your bag, or if a literary side-quest makes things more entertaining.  

This is an incredible journey through a turbulent period of history, starting in slow-burn country and burgeoning into a many-layered portrayal of a remarkable woman. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Isabella d'Este, Marchesa of Mantua. 

The Marchesa is available to buy now.

Thank you to Ravenna Press/Weatherglass Books for sending me a review copy of this book, and to Folk PR for inviting me to join this blog tour.

About the author:

Sarah Dunant has written twelve novels, four of which have been short-listed for awards, and edited two books of essays. She worked for many years for the BBC in radio and television. She featured as an expert in the BBC2 'Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty' drama-documentary series which broadcast in December 2024. Her most recent five novels, set within the Italian renaissance, weave cutting edge historical scholarship into fiction, have become international bestsellers and have been translated into thirty languages.