Writer of unforgettable works such as The Shadow Line and Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad had a life that was itself an exciting novel, close to the wildest and most unpredictable side of nature and human beings.

On 3 August 1924, Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, alias Joseph Conrad, died in Bishopbourne, a small, quiet village in the south of England. The only heir to a Polish aristocratic family, he had left his country almost fifty years earlier to escape the Tsarist police and pursue his romantic dream of a life at sea. He had embarked in Marseilles and sailed for twenty years. This adventurous and wild life was later transformed into masterpieces such as The Shadow Line, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim and Typhoon. With him we travelled from the Malay Archipelago to Central America, from the heart of the African continent to the dark atmospheres of London, from the ancient streets of Krakow to a quiet corner of Canterbury, and we ploughed boundless seas. His stories have fascinated generations of readers for their sense of adventure and mystery, and for the depth and variety of their points of view. Giuseppe Mendicino tells the story of Joseph Conrad, one hundred years after his death, with the emotion of someone who discovered this writer as a teenager and the care of someone who has plumbed his critical reinterpretations and literary references over time.