Uncovered (23): We, The Drowned
Hello! This week on Uncovered we have We, The Drowned by Carsten Jenson. I ran across this one the other day at the bookstore and had to snap a pic. I love the swirling lines and how they mimic the sea perfectly to create such a dynamic and bold cover. There’s also a little person in the midst of the waves if you can see him. I really love this type of line illustration and it’s so different than what you normally see. I actually don’t know much about this book but, after seeing the cover and reading the blurb, I want to read it.
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.
