Maya Jasanoff

Acclaimed illustrator Peter Kuper delivers a visually immersive and profound adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s controversial classic that “doesn’t just retell the book [but] destabilizes it, forcing a reconsideration” (Etelka Lechoczy, NPR). Longtime admirers of the novella will appreciate his innovative interpretations, while new readers will discover a brilliant introduction to a canonical work of twentieth-century literature.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has unsettled generations of readers with its haunting portrait of colonialism and the brutal exploitation of African lives. Peter Kuper’s graphic adaptation reimagines this masterpiece for a new generation. Illustrated to evoke early twentieth-century woodcuts, Kuper’s Heart of Darkness confronts Conrad’s famously ambiguous, labyrinthine sentences and invents in stark black and white panels a visual language that excavates the hidden corners of Conrad’s 1899 masterpiece. Capturing the ominous atmosphere and hellish conditions of the Belgian Congo, Kuper transforms this lurid tale of madness, greed and evil into something shockingly modern. Long-time admirers of the novel will see Conrad’s opus with new eyes while new readers will discover a brilliant introduction to a classic work.

VINNARE AV CUNDHILL HISTORY PRIZE 2018 "Conrad kommer till liv i Jasanoffs mästerliga bok ... " /Ngugi wa Thiong’o i New York Times" "Upplysande, medkännande, superb" /John Le Carré "Jasanoff har inte sparat någon möda för att förstå den värld som format en författare hon älskar och det gör boken till en njutning att läsa." /Adam Hochschild i "Foreign Affairs" "Ett mästerverk ... En av vår tids viktigaste böcker om kolonialismen, skriven av en av dagens mest lysande unga historiker." /William Dalrymple i "The Guardian" "Boken är så välskriven ... Det är bara att njuta – tänk vad sällan man får säga det om ett historiskt arbete."/ "The Times" "Magnifik … Boken är en biografi över Joseph Conrad, men genom Conrad berättar Jasanoff om imerpialismen och dess offer."/"Los Angeles Review of Books" Joseph Conrad förknippas ofta med sin kortroman Mörkrets hjärta (1899), en ursinnig och ända in i våra dagar omdebatterad vidräkning med kolonialismens förbrytelser i fristaten Kongo. Men också hans andra berättelser – Conrad uppfattades till en början främst som en skildrare av sjömanslivet – befinner sig i en sorts kritisk dialog med det sena artonhundratalets motsägelsefulla värld, en värld som var i färd med att globaliseras och där ekonomin, teknologin och storpolitiken i samspel höll på att förändra människors livsvillkor i grunden. Det är till den världen historikern Maya Jasanoff tar oss med i sin inspirerande blandning av författarbiografi och historieessä. Hon berättar inte bara den lätt osannolika historien om hur polacken Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, barn till politiskt radikala föräldrar, kom att bli den naturaliserade engelsmannen Joseph Conrad och en av den engelska litteraturens mest beundrade och uppburna författare, hon visar också hur en sådan förvandling var praktiskt och mänskligt möjlig. Utan sina erfarenheter av sjömanslivet, tropikerna (framför allt Sydostasien) och det koloniala exploateringsmaskineriet hade Conrad aldrig blivit den han blev. Eller så grundligt kluven till civilisationens verkliga eller inbillade välsignelser. Och kanske är det den kluvenheten som förklarar Conrads förblivande aktualitet. Och som gör att Gryningsvakten indirekt också blir en bok om vår egen globaliserade värld och dessa många motsägelser.

"Enlightening, compassionate, superb" --John Le Carr Winner of the 2018 Cundill History Prize A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017One of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2017A visionary exploration of the life and times of Joseph Conrad, his turbulent age of globalization and our own, from one of the most exciting young historians writing today Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, and a communications revolution: these forces shaped Joseph Conrad's destiny at the dawn of the twentieth century. In this brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature, Maya Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization. As an immigrant from Poland to England, and in travels from Malaya to Congo to the Caribbean, Conrad navigated an interconnected world, and captured it in a literary oeuvre of extraordinary depth. His life story delivers a history of globalization from the inside out, and reflects powerfully on the aspirations and challenges of the modern world. Joseph Conrad was born J zef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857, to Polish parents in the Russian Empire. At sixteen he left the landlocked heart of Europe to become a sailor, and for the next twenty years travelled the world's oceans before settling permanently in England as an author. He saw the surging, competitive "new imperialism" that planted a flag in almost every populated part of the globe. He got a close look, too, at the places "beyond the end of telegraph cables and mail-boat lines," and the hypocrisy of the west's most cherished ideals. In a compelling blend of history, biography, and travelogue, Maya Jasanoff follows Conrad's routes and the stories of his four greatest works--The Secret Agent, Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo. Genre-bending, intellectually thrilling, and deeply humane, The Dawn Watch embarks on a spell-binding expedition into the dark heart of Conrad's world--and through it to our own.

CUNDILL PRIZE 2018 WINNER SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2018 `Enlightening, compassionate, superb' John le Carre A visionary life and times of Joseph Conrad, and of our global world, from one of the best historians writing today.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER - This groundbreaking book offers the first global history of the loyalist exodus to Canada, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, India, and beyond. At the end of the American Revolution, sixty thousand Americans loyal to the British cause fled the United States and became refugees throughout the British Empire. Liberty's Exiles tells their story. Maya Jasanoff is featured in THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, on PBS. "A smart, deeply researched and elegantly written history." --New York Times Book Review This surprising account of the founding of the United States and the shaping of the post-revolutionary world traces extraordinary journeys like the one of Elizabeth Johnston, a young mother from Georgia, who led her growing family to Britain, Jamaica, and Canada, questing for a home; black loyalists such as David George, who escaped from slavery in Virginia and went on to found Baptist congregations in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone; and Mohawk Indian leader Joseph Brant, who tried to find autonomy for his people in Ontario. Ambitious, original, and personality-filled, this book is at once an intimate narrative history and a provocative analysis that changes how we see the revolution's "losers" and their legacies.

â??More than just a work of first-class scholarship, Libertyâ??s Exiles is a deeply moving masterpiece that fulfils the historianâ??s most challenging ambition: to revivify past experience.â?? Niall Ferguson Libertyâ??s Exiles was shortlisted for the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize.

In this imaginative book, Maya Jasanoff uncovers the extraordinary stories of collectors who lived on the frontiers of the British Empire in India and Egypt, tracing their exploits to tell an intimate history of imperialism. Jasanoff delves beneath the grand narratives of power, exploitation, and resistance to look at the British Empire through the eyes of the people caught up in it. Written and researched on four continents, Edge of Empire enters a world where people lived, loved, mingled, and identified with one another in ways richer and more complex than previous accounts have led us to believe were possible. And as this book demonstrates, traces of that world remain tangible--and topical--today. An innovative, persuasive, and provocative work of history.

Talented historian Maya Jasanoff offers an alternative history of the British Empire. It is not about conquest ââ?¬â?? but rather a collection of startling and fascinating personal accounts of cross-cultural exchange from those who found themselves on the edges of Empire.