I Have Seen The World Begin

Description

Carsten Jensen's epic journey takes him through China, Cambodia and Vietnam, with many pauses on his way to meditate on the history and customs of the people he meets. He is not a political reporter, although he does write about the Tiananmen Square massacre, the killing fields of Cambodia, the battlefields of Dien Bien Phu and their effect upon the people who survive them.

Carsten Jensen was born in 1952. He first made his name as a columnist and literary critic. As a journalist he has reported from many regions of conflict, including the Balkans and most recently, Afghanistan. His essays, novels and travel books have won numerous literary awards, including the coveted Golden Laurels and the Danish Bank Literary Prize. In 2010 he received the prestigious Olof Palme Prize, awarded for his contribution to the defence of human rights. We, the Drowned has sold more than 300,000 copies in Scandinavia alone and was voted best Danish novel of the past 25 years.

Carsten Jensen has an enviable ability to talk to a wide range of people and excels as a listener and interpreter of what lies behind conversations -- Sarah Anderson * Daily Mail * This philosophical meditation on South-east Asia has to be one of the most politically lucid, poetically observed and elegantly translated books I've read in years * Independent * Engrossing -- James Urquart * The Times *