Simon Pasternak is a Danish author, screenwriter and publisher living in Copenhagen. He is the co-author of a bestselling crime series with Christian Dorph, and has co-written two feature films including the historical thriller, The Idealist. Death Zones is his first solo novel, for which he drew inspiration from his own family history and Jewish roots in Russia and Eastern Europe. Martin Aitken is the acclaimed translator of numerous novels from Danish, including works by Peter Høeg, Jussi Adler-Olsen and Pia Juul, and his translations of short stories and poetry have appeared in many literary journals and magazines.
In 2012 he was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Translation Prize.
Martin Aitken's translations of Scandinavian literature number some 35 books. His work has appeared on the shortlists of the International DUBLIN Literary Award (2017) and the U. S. National Book Awards (2018), as well as the 2021 International Booker Prize. He received the PEN America Translation Prize in 2019.
