Beasts of the Sea

From frozen Arctic seas to a Russian colony on American soil. A stunning debut that explores the lives touched by one of history's most intriguing extinct animals.

1741. The crew of Vitus Bering's ill-starred Great Northern Expedition are shipwrecked off a remote, uncharted island. With no hope of rescue, they give in to despair. Until they discover the flesh of a huge marine mammal that feeds in herds on the kelp in the bay.

1859. The Russian colony of Alaska is on the brink of collapse. Governor Hampus Furuhjelm takes solace in the quest for a unique artefact: a complete skeleton of what is now known as Steller's Sea Cow, rumoured to have disappeared a hundred years before.

Even extinct, the sea cow will continue to shape lives and destinies, from the woman charged with sketching its likeness from its bones, to the expert egg restorer who will refurbish those same bones a century later.

A tribute to an iconic lost creature, and an adventure through three centuries of scientific exploration, Beasts of the Sea charts the unseen consequences of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what we, in our ignorance, have destroyed.

Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston

Turpeinen's debut novel, Beasts of the Sea, which focuses on a single sea cow and individuals linked to it over a span of three centuries, makes the ecological ruptures and freefall of the entire world a palpable experience. [...] This science-fueled book will move you and have you holding your breath. Helsingin Sanomat
A wonderfully evocative account of the discovery, destruction and resurrection of a near-mythic sea monster that even now seems to evade our examining eyes - perhaps out of our own guilt. IIda Turpeinen's novel is almost Shakespearean in its drama and its set-pieces, shifting to and fro in time and space, peopled with vivid characters and their fates; with beings, both human and non-human, caught up in this beautifully written narrative, as deep and profound as the sea itself -- Philip Hoare

IIDA TURPEINEN (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potential of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history of science. Turpeinen's short stories exploring the relationship between humans and animals won the J. H. Erkko Young Writers' Competition in 2014. Her debut novel, Beasts of the Sea (2023) is the winner of the Helsingin Sanomat Prize 2023, and shortlisted for the Finlandia Award 2023.

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