Swedish Suspense Yarn Scores Big

It was announced this morning that Swedish author Mikael Niemi’s To Cook a Bear (MacLehose Press) has won the 2021 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. A press release says this marks the first time a historical novel has won the prize.

Regarding Niemi’s book, which is set in northernmost Sweden in 1852 and was released in hardcover in the fall of 2020, the Petrona judges had this to say: “We were particularly impressed with the novel’s use of historical detail, its fascinating reimagining of a figure from history, the sense of location and atmosphere, the rumination on religion versus the natural world, and the depiction of early forensics. To Cook a Bear’s superb characterisation of the main protagonists Læstadius and Jussi, which is tinged with sadness yet hope, also allows the author to explore the issues of literacy and class with sensitivity and compassion. The beautiful translation by Deborah Bragan-Turner lets the novel shine for English-language readers around the world.”

There were half a dozen other novels in contention for this year’s Petrona Award: A Necessary Death, by Anne Holt, translated by Anne Bruce (Corvus; Norway); Death Deserved, by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, translated by Anne Bruce (Orenda; Norway); The Secret Life of Mr. Roos, by Håkan Nesser, translated by Sarah Death (Mantle; Sweden); The Seven Doors, by Agnes Ravatn, translated by Rosie Hedger (Orenda; Norway); and Gallows Rock, by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton; Iceland).

“I am very proud and happy to have received the Petrona Award,” Niemi declared after hearing of his victory, “and would like to thank my editor, Katharina Bielenberg, my translator Deborah Bragan-Turner, and my agency, Hedlund Literary Agency, who have made it possible for this novel to reach British readers. This happy news has brightened the growing winter darkness here in the very north of Scandinavia. I am sending my warmest thanks to all my British readers.”

Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)