We, The Drowned
Carsten Jensen author Charlotte Barslund translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:7th Apr '11
£12.99
Available for immediate dispatch.
A magnificent epic of war, the sea, and the men and women caught in its powerful grasp.
In 1848 a motley crew of Danish sailors sets sail from the small island town of Marstal to fight the Germans.
Spanning four generations, two world wars and a hundred years, We, The Drowned is an epic tale of adventure, ruthlessness and passion.
In 1848, the young men of Marstal leave their Danish island town to fight in the First Schleswig War, and the sea begins to claim them.
Set in the Danish seafaring town of Marstal from 1848 to the end of the Second World War, We, The Drowned follows three generations shaped by salt water, violence, and absence. Laurids Madsen returns from battle restless and drawn back to the ocean. His son Albert grows up in the shadow of a father who belongs more to the sea than to his family, while Knud Erik Friis comes of age during the world wars, inheriting both pride and loss.
Ships sink, wars erupt, and fortunes collapse as men are lost to shipwreck, combat, and ambition. Women become the authority at home; children grow up without fathers and the identity of the town begins to shift.
Spanning the First Schleswig War and both World War I and World War II, We, The Drowned is nineteenth- and twentieth-century historical fiction full of adventure, longing, and the relentless pull of the sea.
‘Impressive... rich, powerful and rewarding’ Financial Times
‘An epic tale’ Independent
‘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’ Joseph O'Connor
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 -- Vanora Bennett * The Times *
Carsten Jensen is unquestionably one of the most exciting authors writing in Scandinavia today. I always look forward hugely to his books. He is, in my opinion, an utterly unique story-teller -- Henning Mankell
An epic tale * Independent *
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 halfway and you're spellbound -- Joseph O'Connor
Impressive... one of the more engrossing literary voyages of recent years... rich, powerful and rewarding * Financial Times *
In the original Danish, Vi de druknede has already won the Danske Banks Litteraturpris, Demark's equivalent of the Man Booker. Now it has been unleashed on the English-speaking world, many more accolades will surely follow -- Roger Cox * The Scotsman *
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 *
Epic tale -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent Summer Reads *
ISBN: 9780099512967
Dimensions: 199mm x 134mm x 45mm
Weight: 488g
704 pages