Rogue Wave
Rogue Wave
Lars BergeAcclaimed journalist Lars Berge embarks on a personal odyssey in the footsteps of a seafaring ancestor at the
heart of an onboard miracle, from Scandinavia to the ports of Wales and the United States.
The full-rigged SS Alcides sailed the world at the height of the First World War. During one violent storm, a sailor was swept overboard, but instead of joining the names of long-lost sailors that regularly appeared in the newspapers at that time, a miracle occurred. A rogue wave washed him back up on deck again. At least, that’s how the story goes according the account of what’s been told in one Swedish family for over a century. Until the day Swedish writer Lars Berge decides to investigate what really happened on that day, to the sailor J.W. Granström, his great grandfather, the man who was swept overboard, and then not.
ROGUE WAVE is a book about the once cherished heroes of Scandinavia – the boys and men who lived and died at sea. Some found the women of their dreams while others drowned in liquor. Many found God, but even more were lost at sea. Berge weaves a story about leaving and returning home, a travel chronicle of sorts about sailors’ yarns, different harbours, waves, and new horizons. A book for all those who have tried grasping the mysterious depths of the seas, for fans of A Perfect Storm and In the Heart of the Sea.
‘A masterful journalistic work and fine storytelling.’
— Svenska Dagbladet
‘After half the book, however, I capitulate and become Berge’s involuntary fellow traveler in the search for the truth in that story about the monster wave. I allow myself to be taught about one or the other that sails into Berge’s consciousness.’
— Expressen
‘Berge has done what the rest of us wish we had done. Like a Borges in the labyrinths of the library world or a Dan Brown among angels and demons, he has, albeit for real, drilled into…his great grandfather’s story…boy, oh boy, oh boy what a journey it will be…breathless and explosive… ’
— Västerbottens-Kuriren
