The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway's most beloved and popular novel, this Pulitzer Prize–winning American classic follows a Cuban fisherman’s elemental struggle with a giant marlin in a timeless story of courage, resilience, loss, and personal triumph.

The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the most enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.

Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent 20th-century American classic about resilience, courage, and survival. Written in 1952, this hugely successful short classic novel confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.