Nora Dåsnes’ debut hits right in your heart!
Una Gjerde, Empirix.no

A debut of an extraordinary high standard, among others through Dåsnes’ grip of the details. In Cross My Heart and Hope to Die, so much can depend on a small glance, minimal facial expressions, and a father’s raised eyebrows. And that’s pretty big.
From the jury’s statement, the 2020 Ministry of Culture’s Literary Prize

The winners of the 2020 Pondus Prize are Nora Dåsnes and Jenny Jordahl, for their fine-tuned graphic novels that tell the stories of girls in between childhood and youth. For the first time the Pondus Prize goes to two authors for two separate titles: Jenny Jordahl’s What Happened to You? and Nora Dåsnes’ Cross My Heart and Hope to Die. This year the award is raised from NOK 100,000 to NOK 150,000. – For me both are important books. In their own way, they tell the stories of growing up and about acceptance, to be accepted by others than themselves. Dåsnes and Jordahl breaks elegantly out of the traditional comic book routes to tell their stories. It is smart art of storytelling from first to last page.
Frode Øverli, leader of the jury, the Pondus Prize