We, the Drowned - Hardcover

Jensen, Carsten

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151013772 ISBN 13: 9780151013777

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011

Synopsis

Carsten Jensen’s debut novel has taken the world by storm. Already hailed in Europe as an instant classic, We, the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, whose inhabitants have sailed the world’s oceans aboard freight ships for centuries. Spanning over a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War, and 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 spins a magnificent tale of love, war, and adventure, a tale of the men who go to sea and the women they leave behind.

Ships are wrecked at sea and blown up during wars, they are places of terror and violence, yet they continue to lure each generation of Marstal men—fathers and sons—away. Strong, resilient, women raise families alone and sometimes take history into their own hands. There are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, forbidden passions, cowards, heroes, devastating tragedies, and miraculous survivals—everything that a town like Marstal has actually experienced, and that makes We, the Drowned an unforgettable novel, destined to take its place among the greatest seafaring literature.

About this title

Review:

"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." (Aftenposten, Norway)

"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." (Jyllands-Posten, Denmark)

"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." (Berlingske Tidende, Denmark)

From the Publisher:

`A novel of immense authority and ambition and beauty, by a master storyteller at the height of his powers.' Joseph O'Connor

'Carsten Jensen is...in my opinion, an utterly unique storyteller.' Henning Mankell

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0151013772
• ISBN 13: 9780151013777
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 678