Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Maresi
WORK NOTES: trans by A.A. Prime
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1977
WEBSITE: https://www.mariaturtschaninoff.com/english
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Finland
NATIONALITY: Finnish
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1977.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and former journalist.
AWARDS:Winner, Swedish YLE Literature Prize; winner (twice), Society of Swedish Literature Prize; winner, Finlandia Junior Prize, for Maresi.
WRITINGS
Has released other novels in Swedish.
SIDELIGHTS
Maria Turtschaninoff is a Finnish writer of fantasy novels for young adults. Previously, she worked as a journalist.
Turtschaninoff’s novel, Maresi: Krönikor Från Röda klostret, winner of the Finlandia Junior Prize, was released in English in 2017 as Maresi: The Red Abbey Chronicles. The title character, Maresi, faces starvation in her homeland, so her parents send her to the Red Abbey, a safe haven for women and girls, on an island called Menos. There, she is indoctrinated in a religion whose adherents worship the Goddess. Maresi meets another refugee named Jai, whose father is searching for her and plans to kill her, as he killed her sister. When Jai’s father finds the Red Abbey, Maresi and the Sisters band together to stop from taking Jai. They receive help from a supernatural entity called the Crone.
Maresi received mostly favorable assessments from critics. “Utterly satisfying and completely different from standard YA fantasy, this Finnish import seems primed to win over American readers,” asserted Debbie Carton in Booklist. After complimenting Turtschaninoff’s take on feminism, Horn Book writer, Deirdre F. Baker, remarked: “What’s more impressive about this fantasy is the subtlety with which the serenity of the island and its way of life is established.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly commented: “Fantasy and magic blend fluidly in the deeply feminist world of Turtschaninoff’s first novel.” A Kirkus Reviews critic called the novel “strong on neopagan religion and ritual; dubious on female empowerment.” However, Stephen King, reviewer in School Librarian, suggested: “Female lovers of dystopian fantasy adventures will enjoy the journey.” A writer on the London Guardian website stated: “Turtschaninoff weaves in fantasy with feminism, creating a spellbinding read that is completely unputdownable. The setting is flawlessly described by Turtschaninoff, enabling her to seamlessly create changes in the atmosphere.” Brit Mandelo, contributor to Tor.com, opined: “Though Maresi fails to critique or reinterpret some of the glaring issues of those second wave feminist novels, it also succeeds wildly with capturing the strength of their spirit and ethos. That it does so unflinching for a young adult audience, in a world like the world we are currently living in, deserves kudos and attention.” Mandelo added: “Though this is a book for young adults, it refuses to ignore the violence that women endure in patriarchy—because young women already know that violence, and it deserves to be spoken about. This novel refuses to ignore the truth. It is sometimes horrible, but it is honest, and we, like Maresi, bear witness.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 1, 2016, Debbie Carton, review of Maresi: The Red Abbey Chronicles, p. 58.
Horn Book, November-December, 2016, Deirdre F. Baker, review of Maresi, p. 90.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2016, review of Maresi.
Publishers Weekly, October 31, 2016, review of Maresi, p. 77.
School Librarian, spring, 2016, Stephen King, review of Maresi, p. 62.
ONLINE
London Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/ (October 7, 2015), review of Maresi.
Maria Turtschaninoff Website, https://www.mariaturtschaninoff.com/ (July 24, 2017).
Tor.com, http://www.tor.com/ (January 3, 2017), Brit Mandelo, review of Maresi.*
Series
Red Abbey Chronicles
1. Maresi (2016)
2. Naondel (2017)
Maria Turtschaninoff is a Swedish-speaking Finn who has been writing fairy tales from the age of five. However, there was often a twist: the poor farmer boy and the princess he had just saved from the evil witch did not end up marrying, because they "didn’t feel like it". Her biggest grief as a child was that no wardrobe led to Narnia.
After a detour as a journalist for a few years Turtschaninoff debuted in 2007 with a middle-grade portal fantasy and has since published five more novels, all YA fantasy. Pushkin Press has acquired world English rights to Maresi and the subsequent two novels in the Red Abbey Chronicles.
Maria Turtschaninoff is represented by The Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency.
Maria Turtschaninoff was born in 1977 and has been writing fairy tales since she was five. She is the author of many books about magical worlds. She has been awarded the Swedish YLE Literature Prize and has twice won the Society of Swedish Literature Prize. She has also been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Maresi is the first book in the three-part Red Abbey Chronicles, all of which will be published by Pushkin Press. Maresi is being published in eight languages and won the Finlandia Junior Prize.
QUOTED: "Utterly satisfying and completely different from standard YA fantasy, this Finnish import seems primed to win over American readers."
Maresi
Debbie Carton
113.5 (Nov. 1, 2016): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
* Maresi. By Maria Turtschaninoff. Jan. 2017. 256p. Abrams/Amulet, $17.95 (9781419722691). Gr. 8-11.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
It's rare to find a YA fantasy with such polished writing, and almost impossible to find a YA title so committed to a sympathetic portrayal of a matriarchy. Finnish author Turtschaninoff kicks off the Red Abbey Chronicles with the compelling story of 13-year-old Maresi, a novice at the Red Abbey on the island of Menos, where men are forbidden. Sent to the abbey at age 9 to escape starvation, Maresi is supported in her desire to learn everything she can, especially about the First Mother. When a frightened, abused girl named Jai arrives at the abbey, she and Maresi become fast friends, but Jai's angry father pursues her to the island, intent on getting her back and punishing the sisters. Maresi's simple, direct narrative is filled with compelling details of abbey existence, from bathing to eating to moon rituals. The wholesome, stable life of dedication to the First Mother in all her forms (maiden, mother, and crone) through study and service unfolds naturally through the first half of the book, building the reader's respect and affection for the abbey and its inhabitants. Utterly satisfying and completely different from standard YA fantasy, this Finnish import seems primed to win over American readers.--Debbie Carton
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Carton, Debbie. "Maresi." Booklist, 1 Nov. 2016, p. 58. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471142938&it=r&asid=2c6317d5047eafcb4e9924d4eb6dbfe3. Accessed 1 July 2017.
QUOTED: "What's more impressive about this fantasy is the subtlety with which the serenity of the island and its way of life is established."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471142938
Maresi [The Red Abbey Chronicles]
Deirdre F. Baker
92.6 (November-December 2016): p90.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Maresi [The Red Abbey Chronicles]
by Maria Turtschaninoff; trans. from the Swedish by A. A. Prime
High School Amulet/Abrams 247 pp.
1/17 978-1-4197-2269-1 $17.95 (g)
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In this fantasy, Turtschaninoff imagines a vibrant women's community on a remote island. Red Abbey is a pastoral utopia committed to the rites of the First Mother and her three aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone; it's also a haven for the girls who arrive there--driven by starvation, drawn to its learning, or fleeing abuse. Maresi, whose parents sent her there to save her from starvation, has learned to love the kind, cooperative way of life, and when a traumatized newcomer arrives, Maresi hopes that her friendship and the peaceful Abbey will teach Jai to feel safe. But Jai is fleeing a father who buried her sister alive in an honor killing, and Jai is certain he will come after her, too. When he does, with blood and mayhem, Maresi learns her own potent role in the threefold power of the First Mother. Turtschaninoff puts traditional elements of female magic to effective dramatic use, especially in the climactic (and climatic) conflict between Jai's father and the Sisters. But what's more impressive about this fantasy is the subtlety with which the serenity of the island and its way of life is established--through the calls of birds, the sounds of the lapping sea, the smoothness of driftwood.
(g) indicates that the book was read in galley or page proof. The publisher's price is the suggested retail price and does not indicate a possible discount to libraries. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Baker, Deirdre F. "Maresi [The Red Abbey Chronicles]." The Horn Book Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2016, p. 90. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469755402&it=r&asid=362bff67ac70b9c27ab7b95275bf5839. Accessed 1 July 2017.
QUOTED: "Fantasy and magic blend fluidly in the deeply feminist world of Turtschaninoff's first novel."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A469755402
Maresi
263.44 (Oct. 31, 2016): p77.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Maresi
Maria Turtschaninoff, trans. from the Finnish by A.A. Prime. Amulet, $17.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4197-2269-1
Inside the ancient Red Abbey on the island of Menos, women and girls are shielded from abuse, rescued from poverty, and taught the necessary skills to improve their homelands. Novices Maresi, 13, and newcomer Jai have both lost their sisters, but while bold Jai focuses on revenge against the men who buried her beloved sibling alive, brave Maresi is trying to escape the pull of death herself. Fantasy and magic blend fluidly in the deeply feminist world of Turtschaninoff's first novel, originally published in Finland. When death calls to Maresi, it manifests in the whispering hiss of the Crone, an eerily haunting personification of her fears. The island haven is a bright spot of love and harmony amid the stark realities of a dark and brutal world, crafted in the spirit of Margaret Atwood's Republic of Gilead. The sisters and their proteges are tested by intruders, but they greet the hateful aggression with unity and a willingness toward self-sacrifice. In this first book in the Red Abbey Chronicles trilogy, the message is clear: knowledge isn't just power, it can save lives. Ages 13-up. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Maresi." Publishers Weekly, 31 Oct. 2016, p. 77. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470462605&it=r&asid=07422921c6608e310e8462215cdeba1f. Accessed 1 July 2017.
QUOTED: "strong on neopagan religion and ritual; dubious on female empowerment."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A470462605
Maria Turtschaninoff, A.A. Prime: MARESI
(Oct. 15, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Maria Turtschaninoff, A.A. Prime MARESI Amulet/Abrams (Adult Fiction) 17.95 ISBN: 978-1-4197-2269-1
An idyllic abbey of women is attacked by men.The island of Menos’ only inhabitants are the Mother, learned sisters, and novices of Red Abbey. Girls come fleeing poverty and persecution; they receive shelter and sustenance, plus knowledge and wisdom they can sometimes take back to their homelands. Thirteen-year-old Maresi arrived four years ago, escaping the “hunger winters” that killed her younger sister. The Abbey’s unnamed neopagan religion serves the Goddess in her three aspects—Maiden, Mother, Crone—and although Maresi narrates in first-person, readers will understand long before she does that the Crone’s calls to her don’t foretell her death. Violence threatens, though, when novice Jai’s father invades no-men-allowed Menos. He’s already buried Jai’s sister alive, and another honor killing looms. (Jai’s two-dimensional culture consists entirely of threadbare misogyny tropes, such as women forbidden from speaking to men outside the family or leaving the house after sunset.) The Abbey’s victory—wrought by vague power based in women’s hair and a last-minute bailout by the Crone—sits alongside a mass near-rape that’s prevented when the sister currently embodying the Maiden places the rapists “under the enchantment of her radiant beauty” and sacrifices herself, in a way the text portrays as glorious and noble, to rape. Jai’s people are white and blond; other characters are either white-skinned or undesignated. Strong on neopagan religion and ritual; dubious on female empowerment. (maps) (Fantasy. 13-16)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Maria Turtschaninoff, A.A. Prime: MARESI." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466551488&it=r&asid=e673ab2c2ace86184ffe7258ea55009d. Accessed 1 July 2017.
QUOTED: "Female lovers of dystopian fantasy adventures will enjoy the journey."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A466551488
Turtschaninoff, Maria: Maresi (The Red Abbey Chronicles)
Stephen King
64.1 (Spring 2016): p62.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
Turtschaninoff, Maria
Maresi (The Red Abbey Chronicles)
Translated by Annie Prime
Pushkin, 2016, pp256, 10.99 [pounds sterling]
978 1 7826 9091 7
Painstakingly translated from Finnish, and due to be the first of a three part series, the eponymous main character relates her life as a young convert in an all-female community based on an idyllic island. Part cult, part utopia, the sisters are self-sufficient, and spend much of their time worshipping their elders, their founders, and the moon. The Red Abbey is stunningly described, and the routines and hierarchy of the commune seem true to life.
The arrival of a new girl, Jai, however, has a traumatic effect both on the community and on Maresi's future, as invaders threaten their whole existence.
This is beautifully written, and although traumatic and violent at times, still retains a certain innocence and naivety. Maresi has a touch of the Katniss about her, and although the target market is different, female lovers of dystopian fantasy adventures will enjoy the journey.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
King, Stephen. "Turtschaninoff, Maria: Maresi (The Red Abbey Chronicles)." School Librarian, Spring 2016, p. 62. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA448568684&it=r&asid=31d35e95542be1af8b7ca570e219d3dc. Accessed 1 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A448568684
QUOTED: "Turtschaninoff weaves in fantasy with feminism, creating a spellbinding read that is completely unputdownable. The setting is flawlessly described by Turtschaninoff, enabling her to seamlessly create changes in the atmosphere."
Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff – review
‘Turtschaninoff weaves in fantasy with feminism, creating a spellbinding read that is completely unputdownable’
Shares
14
Lucyal99
Guardian children's books site teen reviewer
Wednesday 7 October 2015 15.00 BST
Last modified on Tuesday 2 May 2017 19.26 BST
This fantasy novel by Maria Turtschaninoff is a compulsive read. Maresi tells the story of a ancient abbey founded and run entirely by women, on an island where no men are allowed. It is narrated by the main character, Maresi, a novice at the abbey, who was sent there to escape the terrible poverty her family faced.
Having been at the abbey for four years, Maresi is a popular novice, who enjoys nothing more than going to the treasure room every evening to read until sundown. However, the arrival of Jai, a silent and guarded girl from a foreign land, brings an end to the peace that formerly reigned at the abbey.
As Jai grows more comfortable with her surroundings, she tells Maresi about the terrible things she has experienced, believing that even though she is far away, she is still not safe from the wrath of her father, Sarjan. When he finally comes for his revenge, the sisters at the abbey come together to use all their strength and courage to combat the evil of Sarjan and his men.
Maresi
Turtschaninoff weaves in fantasy with feminism, creating a spellbinding read that is completely unputdownable. The setting is flawlessly described by Turtschaninoff, enabling her to seamlessly create changes in the atmosphere throughout the book. One of the most impressive points of Turtschaninoff’s writing is her ability to depict the effects that both psychological and physical abuse have on women whilst maintaining an almost serene feminist few point throughout, and it is this that makes the novel so unique.
Maresi is published by Pushkin Press on 14th January 2016. Want to tell the world about a book you’ve read? Join the site and send us your review!
QUOTED: "Though Maresi fails to critique or reinterpret some of the glaring issues of those second wave feminist novels, it also succeeds wildly with capturing the strength of their spirit and ethos. That it does so unflinching for a young adult audience, in a world like the world we are currently living in, deserves kudos and attention."
"Though this is a book for young adults, it refuses to ignore the violence that women endure in patriarchy—because young women already know that violence, and it deserves to be spoken about. This novel refuses to ignore the truth. It is sometimes horrible, but it is honest, and we, like Maresi, bear witness."
Feminist Fiction in Translation: Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff
Brit Mandelo
Tue Jan 3, 2017 1:00pm 3 comments 1 Favorite [+]
Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff is a first-person young adult novel, presented as a record written by the titular character. When Jai, a young woman fleeing her father, arrives at the Red Abbey for shelter, she brings on her heels the danger of the outside world. The abbey is a female-only space filled with learning, home and hearth; it exists to protect and preserve women’s rights and rites. Maresi must discover, through trial and danger, who she is and what path she is called to serve—and protect her home in the process.
The novel (which is first in a series) won the highest honor for young adult fiction in Finland, the Finlandia Junior Award, in 2014. Since then, the Red Abbey Chronicles have been translated across the globe—in Chinese, German, French, and more. Amulet Press has picked them up for publication in the US beginning in early 2017.
Maresi reads as an intentional throwback to the earlier works of Ursula K. Le Guin and Marion Zimmer Bradley. It’s a feminist tale in a tradition of feminist tales focusing on the concerns of the second wave: the power of women as women and of reclaiming female spaces, a separatist approach that lauds ecological conservation, inter-generational mentorship, equal division of labor, and the mystical properties of the female body when it is venerated. Turtschaninoff also has a specific concern with valorizing women’s work, femininity, and gentleness as pure and good—in no sense lesser than masculine pursuits. However, the girls and women of the Red Abbey also do hard physical labor and have steel spines; there is softness, here, but it is not softness without courage and strength.
The plot is simple and fast—this book took me barely a few hours to finish. Jai arrives at the island, begins to bond with Maresi and open up about herself, and then a ship of men appears on the horizon: her father’s soldiers, come to search for her. The women of the abbey use their magic to destroy the ship in a storm, but a second ship comes, bearing the man himself and his mercenaries. The abbey is besieged. Each of the women uses her skills, wits, and strength to survive and protect Jai—who ultimately murders her father—and Maresi, who uses her calling to the Crone to utterly destroy the mercenaries in turn. It’s very direct, but quite compelling nonetheless.
The relationships between the girls—the focal point of the novel, really—are familial, supportive, and complex. Though I’d have selfishly appreciated a bit of queerness somewhere in here, it is also nice to read a young adult book without even the slightest hint of a romance. Maresi and Jai form a close and intense emotional bond that sustains them—and it does not require romance to be the most important thing either girl has. It isn’t a possessive love, but it is a powerful one. The pair of them grow together: Jai as she recovers from her nightmarish upbringing, Maresi as she tries to find her path in life. The scenes of them reading together in silence are some of the most delightful things in the novel for their pure pleasantness.
However, I can’t avoid noting that there is a complex problem that detracted from the pleasure I otherwise took in this novel. It’s the problem a contemporary reader usually encounters in texts from the mid-seventies: it’s feminist, and handsomely so, but that feminism appears uncomfortably essentialist in its approach to gender (or, to be more accurate to the novel’s approach, sex). I understand the difficulties in balancing a necessary and healing embrace of the bodies that are typically labelled, judged, and abused based on their femaleness with a contemporary understanding that biological essentialism is a flawed and patriarchal framework—but it is also important. It would take little more than a single line of acknowledgement in the text to solve this conundrum: that women of all kinds are welcome. Particularly in a world where the trifold magic of maiden/mother/crone is so real and true, it seems hard to believe that the magic of the island wouldn’t recognize a girl in need based on the flesh she was born with.
Perhaps this is an issue of translation, as I’m unable to read the text in its original Finnish. It seems a shame, too, for a book that has so much I found compelling and thoughtful—and more so since there are vanishingly few openly, inspirationally feminist texts for young readers. Given that, and given the fantastic work the text does do, I’d still recommend it. But I’d also note that it might be a less pleasant read, for that elision and the implications it creates given recent feminist history, for women who are uncomfortable with essentialist approaches to their gender. A contemporary take on second wave fiction needs to be responsible in terms of the things it borrows and the things it critiques; as a huge fan of Joanna Russ, I understand the difficulty inherent in that project, but also think it is ethically necessary.
Still: though Maresi fails to critique or reinterpret some of the glaring issues of those second wave feminist novels, it also succeeds wildly with capturing the strength of their spirit and ethos. That it does so unflinching for a young adult audience, in a world like the world we are currently living in, deserves kudos and attention. I’m unwilling to discard such a significant project due to its failure to check all the boxes, so to speak.
Because, make no mistake, there is something breathtaking about the scene where the women of the abbey bind and then unbind their hair to call down wild storm magic with their combs, their songs, their togetherness. There is something quiet and terrible about the Rose offering herself as the Goddess embodied to the men who have invaded their island, to ensure the safety and protection of the other women who would have been brutalized. The novel does not shy from issues of rape, abuse, and recovery; while Maresi came to the abbey due to the poverty of her loving family, Jai has escaped a father who murdered her younger sister and would have murdered her and her mother both eventually. She is not the only girl who bears scars from her time before becoming a novice.
Again: I very much appreciate that, though this is a book for young adults, it refuses to ignore the violence that women endure in patriarchy—because young women already know that violence, and it deserves to be spoken about. This novel refuses to ignore the truth. It is sometimes horrible, but it is honest, and we, like Maresi, bear witness. Maresi also acts to protect her loved ones and her island. She, in the end, embraces the call of the Crone and slaughters the men who would hurt the youngest of their girls. She doesn’t do it out of anger or revenge, but of desire to protect, to be worthy of the girls’ trust.
I’m curious about where the further novels in this series will go, and what they’ll focus on. As for this one, I’m glad it exists; the feminist fiction of the seventies and early eighties was a boon and an act of artistic war, and I’m glad to see that spirit continue. Do not go quietly—and don’t stop fighting for each other, to better the world we all share. I think that’s a message we could all use, really.
Maresi is available now from Amulet Books.
Brit Mandelo is a writer, critic, and editor whose primary fields of interest are speculative fiction and queer literature, especially when the two coincide. They have two books out, Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction and We Wuz Pushed: On Joanna Russ and Radical Truth-telling, and in the past have edited for publications like Strange Horizons Magazine. Other work has been featured in magazines such as Stone Telling, Clarkesworld, Apex, and Ideomancer.