Shark Drunk

Full of personal anecdotes, facts on marine life and life in general along coastal Norway, and about the hunt for a big fish … So, the book is much like fishing I guess — it’s not about the catch, it’s about just being there. – Jo Nesbo * New York Times *A description of what happens to dead whales gives way to an impressively thorough history of the Aasjord family’s cos-liver-oil business… Shark Drunk does contain plenty of interesting stuff. – James Walton * Daily Telegraph *Stroksnes’s sidelong approach to science is beguiling… There are moments of adventure… but the triumph of this book is it descriptions… Its beauty, undemanding science and soothing, musing qualities have made the book a bestseller in Norway and beyond. – Horatio Clare * Observer *A fine book. A hymn of love to the sea. The story of a friendship. And a sad chronicle of so much that is wrong about our relationship with the oceans. Deserves to be read widely. – James Rebanks, author of THE SHEPHERD’S LIFEMr Stroksnes beautifully describes the midnight sun, majestic fjords and moody stretches of sea, the changing light and the peaks that rise up out of the water, as well as the Moskstraumen, a system of whirlpools long feared by sailors… Putting “shark-drunk” man into perspective as the real threat to the ocean is one of the many threads Mr Stroksnes has pulled together in a narrative that takes in history and philosophy, mythology and folklore, from Norway’s fishing past to science and the cosmos. Rather than an account of two men trying to catch a shark, it is really a homage to the sea and a call to arms to protect the ecosystem that humans treat so abysmally yet rely on so much. * Economist *Stoksnes’ prose has won multiple awards and Shark Drunk… [is] one literary voyage well worth embarking on. – Bill Prince * GQ *Stroksnes weaves his tale from a dense wool of close observation, fishing yarns, erudition lightly worn, and a helpless, consuming love of the ocean. – William Finnegan, author of BARBARIAN DAYSYou sink into the deep waters alongside the hunters and live for a time in the alien world which covers most of our planet, among ancient sharks and vampire squid. It is brutal, scholarly, thoughtful, fascinating and often very beautiful: just like the nature it so wonderfully brings alive. You taste the sea on every page. – Michael Pye, author of THE EDGE OF THE WORLDMorten Strøksnes has enriched the world with a book of highly unusual originality… As a reader I took the bait and got firmly stuck to the hook. – Fredrik Sjöberg, author of THE FLY TRAPWith the open-minded inquisitiveness of Charles Darwin and the obsession of Captain Ahab, Morten Strøksnes heads out to sea, chasing a monster of the deep known as the Greenland shark. Every page of Shark Drunk feels like a cabinet of curiosities, filled with head-scratching surprises, nuggets of wisdom, and wondrous insights. Gorgeously written and thoroughly addictive. – Michael Finkel, author of THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS

Morten Strøksnes is an award-winning Norwegian writer. After studying in Oslo and Cambridge, Strøksnes embarked on a career as a journalist. He has published eight critically acclaimed books of reportage, essays and literary non-fiction. Shark Drunk was awarded five prizes in Norway when it was first published, including the prestigious Brage Prize for non-fiction.