A magnificent epic of war, the sea, and the men and women caught in its powerful grasp
An epic drama of adventure, courage, ruthlessness and passion by one of Scandinavia’s most acclaimed storytellers.
In 1848 a motley crew of Danish sailors sets sail from the small island town of Marstal to fight the Germans. Not all of them return – and those who do will never be the same. Among them is the daredevil Laurids Madsen, who promptly escapes again into the anonymity of the high seas.
As soon as he is old enough, his son Albert sets off in search of his missing father on a voyage that will take him to the furthest reaches of the globe and into the clutches of the most nefarious company. Bearing a mysterious shrunken head, and plagued by premonitions of bloodshed, he returns to a town increasingly run by women – among them a widow intent on liberating all men from the tyranny of the sea.
From the barren rocks of Newfoundland to the lush plantations of Samoa, from the roughest bars in Tasmania, to the frozen coasts of northern Russia,
We, The Drowned spans four generations, two world wars and a hundred years. Carsten Jensen conjures a wise, humorous, thrilling story of fathers and sons, of the women they love and leave behind, and of the sea’s murderous promise. This is a novel destined to take its place among the greatest seafaring literature.
Author Biography
Carsten Jensen was born in 1952. He first made his name as a columnist and literary critic. As a journalist he has reported from many regions of conflict, including the Balkans and most recently, Afghanistan. His essays, novels and travel books have won numerous literary awards, including the coveted Golden Laurels and the Danish Bank Literary Prize. In 2010 he received the prestigious Olof Palme Prize, awarded for his contribution to the defence of human rights.
We, the Drowned has sold more than 300,000 copies in Scandinavia alone and was voted best Danish novel of the past 25 years.
Reviews
A novel of immense authority and ambition and beauty, by a master storyteller at the height of his powers. This is a book to sail into, to explore, to get lost in, but it is also a book that brings the reader, dazzled by wonders, home to the heart from which great stories come. Meet Carsten Jensen half way and you're spellbound.,‘Impressive… one of the more engrossing literary voyages of recent years… Rich, powerful and rewarding’,Bleak, thrilling and colourful, Carsten Jensen's splendid seafaring epic brings vividly to life the adventures of generations of mariners from the small Danish town of Marstal...The community of living and dead characters offers compelling stories of war, death and adversity, but also triumph and the experience of marvels that have the quality of a legend.,
We, The Drowned is first and foremost a novel about the sea, a novel which has practically been written in cooperation with the great authors of the nineteenth century - Conrad, Melville, Stevenson...
We, The Drowned is the best novel I have read in ages.,Manoeuvres easily between intimacy, subtlety and contagious pleasure in the greater narrative, the cock-and-bull story and the grotesque details... a counterpart to Gabriel García Márquez and
One Hundred Years of Solitude.,A fiercely romantic novel that spans over 100 years of Danish history of war and love... Large in size, but even larger in scope because of its storytelling and writing.,Voted the best Danish novel of the past 25 years,
We, The Drowned is an extraordinary achievement. Few modern novels convey so compellingly the history embodied in individual lives and the ways in which a community can be shaped by the sea that surrounds it.,
The Odyssey,
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
Moby-Dick,
The Old Man and the Sea,
Rites of Passage … and now
We, The Drowned. The canon of great seafaring literature just got bigger by a book. Carsten Jensen is Denmark’s foremost storyteller and ... it’s as if he has taken onboard the landmark achievements of his predecessors, absorbed all their salty wit and wisdom and produced something that tips its hat to their brilliance while being a completely new departure.,Carsten Jensen’s spellbinding
We, the Drowned, spanning four generations in the life of the Danish port of Marstal, is a magnificent addition to the canon of seafaring writing, a brilliant new reworking of the ancient theme… The pages glow with wonderfully imagined pictures… the language is all you could hope for in a sea novel: sinewy and simple, often surprisingly beautiful,A rollicking debut by Jensen, the latest in a lineage of authors of maritime sagas stretching from Homer to Patrick O’Brien.
