Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

S J. Gazan Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

S J. Gazan

S J. Gazan

S J. Gazan Biography

Danish born S.J. Gazan graduated from the University of Copenhagen with a degree in biology. Her debut work of crime fiction, The Dinosaur Feather, was awarded the Denmark Radio Literature Prize 2008 for Best Novel of the Year and went on to become a national bestseller. The Danish Broadcasting Corporation voted The Dinosaur Feather the Crime Novel of the Decade, and in January 2013, it was awarded the Literature Prize of the Ambassadors of the French-Speaking Countries. It has been sold into more than a dozen countries.

S.J. Gazan holds a masters degree in Biology from Copenhagen University, where she specialized in bird origins. While finishing her master studies Sissel-Jo decided to combine her passions as a biologist and novelist and write a scientific thriller. "I took my own situation as a frustrated single mother who was spending too much time studying bird skeletons in the dark depths of Copenhagen Zoological Museum and too little time with my child. I mixed it with the factual elements from my dissertation and heightened the narrative with a murder and a cast of complex and believable characters."

Inspired by the herculean humanitarian efforts of a ground-breaking Danish research team working in the West African country Guinea-Bissau, Gazan based her second novel, The Arc of the Swallow (Quercus Spring 2015), on the World Health Organization's (WHO) global immunization program. During its August 2013 Danish publication The Arc of the Swallow received outstanding reviews, and was awarded the prestigious "Readers Price 2014."

Gazan lives in Berlin with her Australian-born husband and two children.



This bio was last updated on 10/26/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by S J. Gazan at BookBrowse
The Arc of the Swallow jacket The Dinosaur Feather jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for S J. Gazan but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Kate Atkinson

    Kate Atkinson

    Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her four bestselling novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie became the BBC television series ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Dinosaur Feather

    Try:
    Started Early, Took My Dog
    by Kate Atkinson

  • Arnaldur Indridason

    Arnaldur Indridason

    Arnaldur Indridason is an Icelandic writer of crime fiction; most of his books feature the protagonist Detective Erlendur. He worked for many years as a journalist and critic before he began writing novels. Outside Iceland, ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Dinosaur Feather

    Try:
    Arctic Chill
    by Arnaldur Indridason

We recommend 7 similar authors

View all 7 Read-Alikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.