Tangled Roots

The epic 400-year story of a family and a farm, deep in the magical Finnish forest—perfect for fans of North Woods and Tove Jansson's The Summer Book

"Maria Turtschaninoff has no equal when it comes to diving deep into the spirit of an era"  — Le Monde des Livres

Prize-winning author Maria Turtschaninoff delivers a mesmeric tale of nature, history and hope. Filled with fantasy, magic and a deep love of human connection, Tangled Roots is an epic, passionate story of survival.

An old soldier retires and is given a plot of land deep in the Finnish forest, as pension for his years of faithful service to the crown. Here, he carves a secluded croft and calls it home, but try as he might to tame the land, its wild magic endures.

From this 17th-century beginning comes centuries of his descendants who will continue work the farm, through days of plenty and famine, love and war, their fates entangled with the rhythms of the ancient wilderness, where mysterious shapes flit between the trees and danger lurks in the treacherous fen...

Like dragonflies darting over the marsh, their lives glimmer briefly and then are gone: a young girl entranced by the forest folk, a faithless fiancé who meets his match beneath the age-old branches, a farmhand with a strange obsession....

What endures is the wild landscape and its secrets. This place holds the certainty that wherever we put down roots, the land will grow roots in us too.

Maria Turtschaninoff is known for crafting lyrical, historically inspired stories filled with magic and fantasy. She has won numerous prizes, including the Society of Swedish Literature Prize, the Swedish YLE Literature Prize and Finlandia Junior Prize, as well as being nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Her YA trilogy, The Red Abbey Chronicles, has sold in 31 territories around the world. Tangled Roots is Maria's first adult novel.

A.A. Prime is an award-winning translator from Swedish to English. Her translations include Maria Turtschaninoff’s Red Abbey Chronicles trilogy.