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Jump to navigationJump to searchWe, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen (view source)
Revision as of 11:42, 9 August 2020
, 11:42, 9 August 2020no edit summary
In 1848, Laurids Madsen and other men of the small
town of Marstal go to war to fight the Germans, and an explosion
flings him up to heaven, as far as anyone can tell. But Laurids
returns, claiming his sea -boots were too heavy for him to stay up
there – only to be lost to Marstal anyway, as he abandons his family
to sail the high seas.
While it’s Laurids’ story which gets the book started, the main focus
is on Albert and Knud. We follow Albert through nearly his entire
life, and watch Knud grow up. They’re two incredibly captivating
characters, and the ghostly narration of much of the book by an unseen
chorus, the ‘’we’’ of the title just adds to the novel’s ability to
entrance you. The middle part is the exception to this narration,
instead being told in the first person by Albert himself as he quests
to find his father. This is just as well-written, and breaks up the
massive length of the novel well. The supporting cast – from Knud’s
childhood friend Anton, the Terror of Marstal, to Klara, Knud’s
in their own way as the main pair.
The book is an epic in every sense, nearly as sprawling and far-reaching as the sea itself, and takes in many kinds of stories. It’san adventure story, a romance, a coming-of-age story, a war tale, adrama, and a comedy. But more than any of those, it’s a book whichbegs to be savoured, with gorgeous writing. The last few pages aretruly breathtaking writing which I’ve just reread several times, andthe closing paragraphs made this the first literature for a long, longtime which brought me close to tears with their beauty.
In summary , this is one of the highest recommendations I can give –
certainly one of my top few books of the last decade – and despite its
massive length is extremely hard to put down once you’re hooked by the
Further reading suggestion: The only literary fiction I’ve come across
in the last ten years which is at a similar level of excellence to
this book is the equally breathtaking [[The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon]]. I wish I could recommend [[After the Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld]], but I didn't like it at all.
{{amazontext|amazon=0099512963}}
