The Sharks

Author: Jens Bjørneboe
Translator: Esther Greenleaf Mürer
ISBN-13: 9781909408128
Pages: 242
Published: 2016
Series: B No. 11
Paperback

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Description

Set at the end of last century, The Sharks is a thrilling tale of mutiny and shipwreck, which bears comparison with Melville’s Moby Dick or Conrad’s Typhoon in its suspense and its evocation of the fascination of the sea. It is also the story of mankind’s voyage into the twentieth century, suspended between the empty skies and the bottomless depths, dreadfully aware of its potential for self destruction but clinging to a belief in the preservation of a fragile humanity. The narrator, Peder Jensen, is both competent second mate and unworldly philosopher, whose brain ‘lacks walls, a floor and a roof’; through his eyes we follow the dismantling of the rigid power structure on board as a community begins to emerge.

This novel from 1974 is the last one by Norwegian author Jens Bjørneboe (1920-1976), one of Norway’s most original, outspoken and controversial modern writers.

Additional information

Authors

Jens Bjørneboe

Language translated from

Norwegian

Translators

Esther Greenleaf Mürer