We, the Drowned

We, the Drowned sets sail beyond the narrow channels of the seafaring genre and approaches Tolstoy in its evocation of wars confusion, its power to stun victors and vanquished alike . . . A gorgeous, unsparing novel. Washington Post

A generational saga, a swashbuckling sailors tale, and the account of a small town coming into modernityboth Melville and Steinbeck might have been pleased to read it. New Republic

Hailed in Europe as an instant classic, We, the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, Denmark, whose inhabitants sailed the world from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War. The novel tells of ships wrecked and blown up in wars, of places of terror and violence that continue to lure each generation; there are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, and miraculous survivals. The result is a brilliant seafaring novel, a gripping saga encompassing industrial growth, the years of expansion and exploration, the crucible of the first half of the twentieth century, and most of all, the sea.

Called one of the most exciting authors in Nordic literature by Henning Mankell, Carsten Jensen has worked as a literary critic and a journalist, reporting from China, Cambodia, Latin America, the Pacific Islands, and Afghanistan. He lives in Copenhagen and Marstal.