The Dawn Watch

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.

Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, the promise and peril of a technological and communications revolution: these forces shaped the life and work of Joseph Conrad 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 we recognize it today. As an immigrant from Poland to England, and in travels from Malaysia to the 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 Jozef 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 London 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 spellbinding expedition into the dark heart of Conrad's world - and through it to our own.

In The Dawn Watch, Jasanoff presents a top-tier exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism, shedding light on the political landscape that shaped Conrad's life and works. It's not just an autobiography, but a deep dive into the world of explorers and adventurers, navigating the complex terrains of Africa and beyond.

For fans of William Dalrymple (The Company Quartet), Kapka Kassabova (To the Lake), Edward W. Said (Fateful Triangle), David Abulafia (The Boundless Sea), and Olivia Laing (The Garden Against Time).