Several books by Harri István Mäki are suspected of plagiarism

Helmivjö publishing house announced on Wednesday on its website that it had removed four of its selections Mr. István Mäen books, i.e. all the books published by Mäki.

Harri István Mäki is a prolific writer whose works have been published by several small Finnish publishing houses. At the end of 2025, however, Helmivöö and Enostone removed Mäki’s books from sale, which had turned out to be plagiarized American author by Richard Brautigan from production.

This too times it is about suspected plagiarism. Helmivö says in its announcement that it is about Mäki’s novels A spell, Optimum and Peilipatsas. In addition to them, Helmivöy has removed Mäki’s collection of short stories from sale An angel in a tobacco parlourwhich has not been subject to plagiarism suspicions.

Pearl belt publisher Juri Nummelin says that the new suspicions that have now appeared are about a Moroccan writer Mohammed Mrabetin from production.

“I heard from the Writers’ Union that three of the books I published are plagiarisms. And when I investigated this myself, I found the entire text in one of the books, [Mäen kirja] is clear plagiarism. In another I found a detailed plot description that matched it [Mäen] book that I have published and decided to delete that too. I don’t know the exact source of the third book, but I decided to delete it, as well as the collection of short stories, because I have lost confidence that they are his own texts,” says Nummelin.

Mohammed Mrabet (b. 1936) is a Moroccan visual artist and writer whose writing career was particularly influenced by an American writer who settled in Tangier Paul Bowles.

After meeting Mrabet, Bowles began to record his oral storytelling and translated it into English. Bowles is especially known for his bestselling novel Sheltering Sky (Fin. A protective sky), but Mrabet’s production is considerably less known.

Finland chairman of the writers’ union Ville Hytönen says that the association is currently going through Mäki’s production to find possible plagiarisms. The investigation is expected to be completed in early April.

“The Writers’ Union is strongly committed to the fact that the defense of copyright is at the center of the union’s activities,” says Hytönen.

“We consider it reprehensible if a member of the association violates copyright. In such matters, the membership takes a position on procedures and the board of directors may propose different procedures, but at the moment such has not yet been decided.”

After hearing about new suspicions of plagiarism, publisher Juri Nummelin contacted Harri István Mäke.

“Harri has admitted to me that plagiarism has taken place,” says Nummelin.

Already last year, when Helmivjö published Pink punk – novel and K. published by Enostonenafka opens a grill kiosk -poem collection were revealed to be plagiarisms from Richard Brautigan, Nummelin asked Mäe if this was the only case.

“He swore he hadn’t plagiarized before. You can really say the trust is gone.”

Harri István Mäki did not respond to HS’s request for comment on Wednesday.