A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck is the best book I’ve read in 2026. I couldn’t put it down and couldn’t wait to tell you about it!
The tale itself is extraordinary, making headlines around the world in 1973 but largely forgotten since. On June 30, 1973, a South Korean fishing ship rescued a British couple lost at sea for 117 days on a life raft. Barely alive, Maurice and Maralyn had been pushed to the edge of human endurance after a dying whale capsized their boat. Their story is one of ingenuity and despair in the face of an unforgiving sun and torrential storms. Fish are caught using safety pins. Unwitting birds are suffocated. Turtles are caught and gutted – except for the one kept as a pet. It is a tale of constant thirst in a boundless sea; of finding ways to pass the hours without going mad. Rescue is at hand, and then it isn’t. Finally, it is a tale of salvation and a return to the land of the living – changed. (And not.)
In calm and collected prose, Sophie Elmhirst tells the most extreme and astonishing story. There’s something about the coolness of the writing and the fire of the story that – in part – gives this book its power. The title promises something sensational, but the book offers something simpler and more profound. Quietly, Elmhirst investigates how Maurice became Maurice, and how Maralyn became Maralyn. She considers each of them with care and curiosity, from childhood to the end of their days. Their time in the raft was only 117 days in the course of long lives.
Elmhirst is particularly interested in Maurice and Maralyn’s marriage, but the book never feels prurient that way. It asks: what could two people be to each other, and together? Their marriage was not perfect, and it was everything. Each of them remained entirely themselves. It worked for them.
***
Accolades:
New York Times Top 10 Book of 2025
Finalist for Kirkus Prize, 2025
Selected as one of President Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2025
“Best Book” accolades from NPR, Vogue, Time Magazine, and The New Yorker (among others)
***
Thank you for helping me to decide which book to put on the top of my towering stack! (I did tell you about “The Shuttle,” didn’t I —it has replaced “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” on my stack of faves)
Please tell me about “The Shuttle”! I’m sure that needs to be in my stack! Xoxo
Wow, incredible story and photographs indeed. It’s on my list! Thank you, Jennifer!
I hope you’ll love it as much as I did! I bet you will! Xoxo
Jennifer, your well written review is also powerful.
Thank you, dear Jack. Xoxo
I read this book when it came out, and it’s fantastic! So glad you are recommending it!