“Dancing” All the Way to Victory

Dead Men Dancing, by Jógvan Isaksen, has won the 2024 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The 74-year-old Isaksen is a prolific writer living in the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. The English translation of Dead Men Dancing was published last year by Norvik Press.

A congratulatory statement from the judges reads, in part:

Similar to the story of the ancient god Prometheus, a man has been shackled to rocks on the Faroe Islands, and left to drown on the beach. The discovery of his body throws the local community into an unsettling chaos, and as the journalist Hannis Martinsson investigates, he comes across evidence of similar deaths. He realises they are linked to the events in Klaksvík in the 1950s, and a local revolt which tore the community apart. As Martinsson digs into the troubled past, he learns about his country’s history, and also gives the reader a chance to discover what makes the Faroes intriguing and spellbinding.

Being a largely unknown territory to most, Dead Men Dancing includes a useful introduction to the modern reality of these islands by the CEO of the Faroese Broadcasting Corporation, mirrored by the social commentary that lies at the heart of the book itself, and the portrayal of the relationship with Denmark throughout the years.

This is only Isaksen’s second novel to be translated into English following Walpurgis Tide [Norvik Press, 2016]. This contemporary Faroese crime-fiction writer places his characters in the wild, beautiful, and unforgiving environment and allows them to search for truth. The judges found the location to be absolutely integral to the unfolding of the plot, and how the raw natural beauty of the Faroes served as a reflection of the thoughts and actions of the characters.

Dogged and uncompromising, Martinsson is a superb creation, similar in his ‘detective’ thinking and approach to Gunnar Staalesen’s lonely wolf PI Varg Veum, which the judging panel found very appealing. Martinsson’s gloomy demeanour and natural cynicism was beautifully balanced throughout with the more empathetic side of his nature, and in the age-old tradition of crime fiction his personal and professional relationships are fraught with tension.

The translation by Marita Thomsen is both accomplished and a little unusual, drawing as she does on the vernacular and intonation of the Scottish dialect. Again, the judges found this to be refreshingly different, and enjoyed the unique cadence and rhythm this gave to the book overall, an essential quality of any book in translation.

The annual Petrona Award was established in 2013 in memory of Maxine Clarke, a British editor and “champion of Scandinavian crime fiction” who died in 2012. (Petrona was the name of her long-running blog). All entries “must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar,” and their authors “must either be born in Scandinavia or the submission must be set in Scandinavia.”

Also short-listed for the Petrona this year were The Collector, by Anne Mette Hancock, translated by Tara F. Chace (Denmark, Swift Press); Snow Fall, by Jørn Lier Horst, translated by Anne Bruce (Norway, Michael Joseph); The Girl by the Bridge, by Arnaldur Indriðason, translated by Philip Roughton (Iceland, Harvill Secker); The Sins of Our Fathers, by Åsa Larsson, translated by Frank Perry (Sweden, MacLehose Press); and The Prey, by Yrsa Sigurðardottir, translated by Victoria Cribb (Iceland, Hodder & Stoughton).

Congratulations to all of the 2024 nominees!