Loukko by 
Tokyo-based Sunmark Publishing has acquired the Japanese rights to The Charm of Ice, an abundantly illustrated figure-skating book featuring the world’s leading skaters. Sunmark is a prolific publisher of nonfiction in Japan: their bestsellers include The Life–Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie “KonMari” Kondo. The deal was closed in in collaboration with Japan UNI Agency.
Sunmark’s editor was enthusiastic about the book: “As I love figure skating, I would be delighted to make this lovely book available for Japanese fans.”
The Charm of Ice consists of seven interwoven stories and each section has its own timeless theme, such as ice, justice, pain or gaze. The book’s narrative style resembles rather a short story or an essay format than traditional non-fiction or sports journalism. World-leading figure skaters, such as Kiira Korpi, Laura Lepistö, Mao Asada, Carolina Kostner, Yevgeni Plushenko and Brian Joubert have been interviewed for the book.
Leena Lehtolainen is best known for her Maria Kallio crime novels, translated into 29 languages to date. Her co-author Kaisa Viitanen is a journalist, and the award-winning photographer Elina Paasonen responsible for the beautiful pictures.
Request the English-language reading material and the Finnish edition here!
Rights sold:
Original publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
JAPAN, Sunmark
