The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

Published by Triad/Panther Books: Frogmore, St Albans, 1976.
First published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1952.

This is a very famous, and very short, book that is also the second Pulitzer Prize winning book I have read! To be fully transparent, I am currently also listening to an audiobook version of The Age of Innocence, but this was short enough that I finished it over two days, whereas Innocence still has hours of listening time to go.

The Old Man and the Sea has a very simple story: an old man (Santiago) has not caught a fish in eighty-four days. On the morning of the eighty-fifth day, he sets out, hooks a large fish, and determines that he will stay in pursuit until he catches it. The fish swims out to sea for a couple of days before the two finally 'fight', and then the old man must attempt to return home with the fish.

There isn't much more to the story than that.

He also talks to a young boy at the beginning and end of the story.

Some tourists mistake the bones of his fish for a shark.

It's a bit melancholic. It's very simple.

I wouldn't call it a 'masterpiece', or probably even consider it for awards. But, to be honest, the few times I've tried to read Hemingway in the past, I've struggled to "get" him.

Maybe it's just not for me.

At least it isn't sleazy and disturbing, like so many Booker prize winners have been!

Completed 11 March 2026.

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(Pulitzer Winning Fiction)

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