Never a Tomorrow

Ei koskaan huomispäivää

A classic pre-World War Two novella by Finland’s Mika Waltari.

Captain is a thrill-seeking former elite soldier who is in a relationship with his colleague’s wife, Astrid. Never a Tomorrow opens with Captain and Astrid hitting a young boy with their car and hiding his body in the woods. The pair resume their normal lives until the body is discovered.

With the threat of World War Two looming, Astrid grows increasingly paranoid and Captain worries that she’ll confess. Ultimately Captain is confronted with a big moral decision: will he confess his wrongdoing, or will he continue to live a lie?

Waltari submitted both Never a Tomorrow and A Stranger Came to the Farm to major publishing house WSOY’s novella competition anonymously. While A Stranger Came to the Farm won, Never A Tomorrow was awarded second place. However when the jury learned that both works were by Waltari, he had to withdraw Never a Tomorrow.

Never a Tomorrow has been adapted for film three times: by William Maskus in 1957; Arne Mattsson in 1957; and Tuija-Maija Niskanen in 1995.

Mika Waltari (1908-1979) is the most popular 20th century Finnish writer who is best known for his magnus opus The Egyptian. Over a career that spanned five decades, Waltari published well over 100 works, of which 200 translations have been made. His works include at least 30 novels, 20 plays and 15 novellas, as well as short stories, poems, screenplays and essays. In 1957 he was appointed to the Academy of Finland, having previously won the state literature award five times. Waltari’s works have been translated into over 40 languages.

Rights sold

Czech (Hejkal)*
English, UK (Hodder & Stoughton)
English, USA (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)*
Estonian (Orto)
French (Actes Sud)*
German (Paul Neff)
Italian (Rizzoli)
Hungarian (Europa)
Polish (C&T)*
Slovakian (Tatran)
Spanish (G. P. Ediciones)
Swedish (Wahlström & Widstrand)
*rights reverted