Jógvan Isaksen shortlisted for Petrona Award 2024

Jógvan Isaksen’s crime novel Dead Men Dancing is on the shortlist for the Petrona Award 2024 for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year.

The judges’ comments on Dead Men Dancing:
Similar to the story of the ancient god Prometheus, a man has been shackled to rocks and left to drown on the beach. But this time it happens on the Faroe Islands. The discovery of his body throws the local community into an unsettling chaos. As the journalist Hannis Martinsson investigates, he comes across evidence of similar deaths. He realises they are linked to the events in Klaksvik in the 1950s, and a local revolt which tore the community apart. As Martinsson digs into the past, he learns about his country’s history, and the reader has a chance to discover what makes the Faroes intriguing and spellbinding.
This is only Isaksen’s second novel to be translated into English. The contemporary Faroese crime fiction writer places his characters in the wild, beautiful, and unforgiving environment and allows them to search for truth. Dogged and uncompromising, Martinsson is a superb creation.

The winning title will be announced on 14 November 2024. The Petrona Award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia, and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

Dead Men Dancing is translated into English by Marita Thomsen and published by Norvik Press in 2023. Originally published in 2011 by Mentunargrunnur Studentafelagsins.