Carsten Jensen Denmark

Danish author, born 1952. Jensen has previously written travel biographies, most known are his two books Jeg har set verden begynde (I Have Seen the World Begin) from 1996 and Jeg har hørt et stjerneskud (I Have Heard a Shooting Star) from the following year. He was awarded the Golden Laurels in 1997 for the former, but had received critical acclaim previous to the award for his essays and articles such as Sjælen sidder i øjet (1985) (The Windows of the Soul) and Jorden i munden (1991) (Earth in the Mouth). He is considered one of Denmark's most outspoken and critical participants in the public debate. Winner of the Swedish Olof-Palme Prize 2009.

Le Prix Gens de Mer 2010
"Prix littéraire des ambassadeurs des pays ayant en partage l'usage du francais" 2010

Ud: Opdagelsesrejser 1978 - 2010
(Out: Expeditions 1978 - 2010)
Gyldendal, 2010

Out consists partly of reprinted travelogues over the past 32 years, partly of newly written introductions of the decades that the book covers, from the 1970‘ies to the new millennium, both politically and personally. The result is a richly versatile chronicle of time from the birds of passage in the northern part of Denmark to the unemployed worker in Naples, from the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to a wall in Berlin, from the Soviet Union on the brink of dissolution to the Danish soldiers in the Helmand province. This is modern history seen from and experienced by an explorer who has sought the uttermost corners only to return home to share his experiences with his readers.

Rights sold:

Norway: Press
Sweden: Albert Bonniers Förlag

Sidste rejse
(Last Voyage) Gyldendal, 2007

The year is 1893. The painter Carl Rasmussen is on his way to Greenland. He is in a deep artistic crisis and now he has set out to retrace the lost inspiration. But the voyage along the west coast of Greenland turns into a merciless confrontation with himself. He has lived in Marstal for a number of years and produced idealised portrayals of life in the seafaring village. He has remained in a spiritual centre in the town, but at the same time felt increasingly excluded. Last Voyage is not only a novel about the artist's discord between ideal and reality, but also about a man's fight to belong in a community that he does not understand, about the divide between duty and love, about the necessity of moving on. This is the story of a man whose fundament of life crumbles under the pressure of a new time that tears everything away that he has believed in. Where does the last voyage lead?

Vi, de druknede
(We, the Drowned) Gyldendal, 2006

Bestseller No 1 in all Danish lists
Nominated for Montana Litteraturpris (Danish), P2Romanprisen 2007 (Danish), Weekendavsens Litteraturpris 2006 (Danish). Winner of Danske Banks Litteraturpris 2007

Marstal: a small town on a modest Baltic island, part of a tiny nation. But in 1848, home to a new generation of men determined to conquer the high seas, and to sail as far away from Denmark as the winds will take them. Men forced into permanent war: with other nations, with the ocean, with one another, with the women they love, and most of all with their own dark impulses. Their story is one of courage, ruthlessness, violence, passion, and loss. Because the sea always exacts a price from men like the maverick Lauritz - who goes to Heaven and comes back again. And his son Albert, discoverer of a mysterious shrunken head. And Knud-Erik, of whom the second world war demands the morally impossible. It requires it of their women too: the widows of the drowned, and Klara, Marstal’s angel of destruction.
From the barren rocks of Newfoundland to the lush plantations of Samoa, from Tasmania’s louchest bars to the frozen coasts of northern Russia, Vi, de Druknede is an epic story of the men of Marstal: of their longing for distant horizons, of the homecoming of those who survive, and the loss of those who drown in the attempt. Enter a corner of the world you never knew existed

Excerpts from reviews:

Jensen’s resplendent saga, an epic voyage of the imagination, is mesmerizing in its unsparing drama, fascinating in its knowledge of the sea, wryly humorous, and profound in its embrace of compassion, reason, and justice. (Booklist STARRED review)

From adventures on the storm-ravaged seas and in exotic lands, to battles in town over the shipping industry and family life, dozens of stories coalesce into an odyssey taut with action and drama and suffused with enough heart to satisfy readers who want more than the breakneck thrills of ships battling the elements. (Publishers Weekly STARRED review)

Sold to: Norway (Press), Sweden (Albert Bonniers Förlag), the Netherlands (Mouria), Germany (Random House), UK (Harvill Secker), US (Harcourt), Italy (Rizzoli), Finland (Werner Söderström), Spain (Salamandra), France (Maren Sell Editeurs), Poland (Wydawnictwo W.A.B.), Estonia (Atlex), Greece: Nea Ekdotiki^, Russia: Atticus^, Iceland (Draumsyn).

Official website

News

• Feb 25th 2011

  Danish author, Carsten Jensen, has received two wonderful reviews in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal in connection with the American publication of his successful novel, We the Drowned. The Washington Post describes Jensen’s novel as “gorgeous” and “unsparing” whilst The Wall Street Journal admires the book for “the sheer gusto of its narrative” and the author for ennobling “the old-fashioned art of storytelling by showing how the relating of a tale can itself foster a spirit of fellowship.”

• Oct 13th 2010

  The American edition of We, the Drowned will be reviewed in Publishers Weekly with a starred review. The book will be published in the US in on February the 9th 2011. Please see below:

  *We, the Drowned An international hit, this bold seafaring epic spans 100 years in the lives of the men and women from a small town on an island off the Danish coast. Starting with the war between Germany and Denmark in 1848 and continuing through WWII, the men of Marstal sail, fight, trade, and die at sea while the women raise their children and wait for their husbands' and sons' uncertain return. The story loosely follows one family, the Madsens, beginning with the legendary Laurids Madsen, "best known for having single-handedly started a war," and then his son, Albert, and a boy named Knud Erik, whom Albert takes under his wing. From adventures on the storm-ravaged seas and in exotic lands, to battles in town over the shipping industry and family life, dozens of stories coalesce into an odyssey taut with action and drama and suffused with enough heart to satisfy readers who want more than the breakneck thrills of ships battling the elements. By the time readers turn the final page, they will have come to intimately know this town and its sailors who tear out across an unforgiving sea. (Feb.)

• Jul 6th 2010

  Carsten Jensen's novel We, the Drowned has been chosen by the FT's critics as one of books to read this summer: the Financial Times

• Jun 15th 2010

  Carsten Jensen has received a fine endorsement from bestselling author Joseph O'Connor, the author behind the successful novels of the trilogy consisting of: Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls and Ghost Light.

  ‘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 half way and you're spellbound.’ –––Joseph O’Connor

  Furthermore, Writers' Hub have a beautiful review of We, the Drowned which is called "a magnificent achievement - a book for life." Writers' Hub

• May 31st 2010

  Carsten Jensen has been awarded Prix Gens de Mer at the literature festival Etonnants Voyageurs in Sant-Malo in France for his successful novel We, the Drowned which was published in French earlier this year.

  “Le prix Gens de mer (3.000 euros), qui récompense un ouvrage ayant un caractère maritime au sens large, est revenu à l'écrivain danois Carsten Jensen pour "Nous les noyés" aux éditions Libella-Maren Sell.”

  The book has received brilliant reviews in France and Le Monde concluded: "L’utilisation d’une narration à la première personne du pluriel, plastique et puissante, a rarement été aussi proche d’une telle perfection poétique. Elle répète de fait un questionnement du sujet romanesque qui traverse la littérature nordique.”

  And l’Express:
  "Il faut prendre son temps pour venir à bout de ces sept cents pages mais la compagnie de Carsten Jensen est un pur régal, parce qu'il a retenu les leçons de Stevenson et de Melville."

  The English edition of We, the Drowned is still generating great interest. The Times wrote in their review that: “Carsten Jensen’s spellbinding We, the Drowned spanning four generations in the life of the Danish Port of Marstal is 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, often full of tongue-in-cheek laughter...”

  The Scotman says: "The Odyssey, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Moby-Dick, The Old Man and the Sea and now We, the Drowned. The canon of great seafaring literature just got bigger by a book. Carsten Jensen is Denmark’s foremost storyteller and in this novel, newly translated into English, it’s as if he has taken onboard the landmark achievements of his predecessors, absorbed all their salty wit and wisdom and produced something that tips its hat to their brilliance while being a completely new departure...”

  And the editor of The Bookbag concludes: “In summary this is one of the highest recommendations I can give - certainly one of my top few books of the last decade - a despite its massive length is extremely hard to put down once you’re hooked by the story.”

• Apr 7th 2010

  Carsten Jensen has received a brilliant review in the Financial Times for the UK edition of We, the Drowned published by Harvill Secker earlier this month. The review describes the book as "rich, powerful and rewarding" and as "one of the more engrossing literary voyages of recent years." To read the full review please click here: The Financial Times