As someone who was loudly sceptical of the recent trend in children’s sport to not have winners and losers (just competitors) I am about to be something of a hypocrite but at least I recognise the fact. At next week’s CrimeFest the winner of the inaugural Petrona Award, named in honour of Maxine Clarke, will be announced. I think the award is a great idea but in a way I will be sad to hear the winner announced…I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each of the books on the shortlist and would be just as happy if they all got a trophy.
The shortlist is made up of
- Thomas Enger’s PIERCED, translated by Charlotte Barslund
- Arnaldur Indridason’s BLACK SKIES, translated by Victoria Cribb
- Liza Marklund’s LAST WILL, translated by Neil Smith
- Leif G.W. Persson’s ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER LIFE, translated by Paul Norlen
There are two polls still open for another few days at Euro Crime (check out the right hand side-bar) and after much thought and many changes of mind I voted for
Which book do you want to win: At the moment my personal favourite of the four is ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER LIFE which I enjoyed immensely despite the fact it broke many of my personal rules for what makes good fiction. I loved its breadth and structure and the delicate way it showed the changes in Swedish society over time. So, edging out the other three books by the tiniest of margins, this is the book I shall barrack for (though it will be a half-hearted kind of barracking as I genuinely think all the others are equally worthy winners).
Which book do you think should win: I think Norman Price is probably right in thinking it would be particularly fitting if LAST WILL were to win the award given Liza Marklund was one of the Scandinavian writers Maxine championed early on and that this novel concerns another of her keen interests: the depiction of science in fiction. And it is a bloody good read.
But even if one of the others wins I really will be just as happy and so it simply remains to say good luck to all the authors and translators and thank you for many hours of great reading between you.
Reactions to Reading 
Bernadette, very interesting choice. I have only read Black Skies and Last Will of the four selections. The reason I have read Liza Marklund’s books is because Maxine Clarke championed them. Once I began reading them, I became committed to Annika Bengtzon’s series, and am now awaiting more translated books to appear over here.
You make a very strong case for Another Time, Another Life, which means I’ll move it way up on my TBR mountain and make it my business to read it soon. (groan, under the TBR piles.)
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Lovely post, Bernadette – It is terrific that there are such worthy novels for this inaugural Petrona Award. No matter which novel wins, it’s a great start to what I hope will be a long tradition.
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Bernadette, re “Norman Smith”-did you mean Neil Smith, the translator of Liza Marklund’s novels, or Norman Price, the collector of photographs of Liza Marklund? 😉
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Sorry Norman…all fixed now…I suspect we can blame the football commentary blaring in the background while I typed…Norm Smith was Oz player of repute with a medal named after him…someone probably mentioned him
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Reblogged this on Something to Ponder About and commented:
Fantastic Scandinavian writers are featured here. Very hard to separate them. I am a definite Indridason fan, but also LOVE Annika Bengtzon! Decisions, decisions…..
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I’m looking forward to the presentation at crimefest and there are some cracking contenders for the 2013 prize too.
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