The Old Man and the Sea

“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

Ernest Hemingway’s final masterpiece is the simplest and most profound of his works—a story of an old fisherman, a giant marlin, and the sea that gives and takes everything.

Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman, has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. The boy who once fished with him has been ordered to a more successful boat. Santiago fishes alone. On the eighty-fifth day, he rows far out into the Gulf Stream. A marlin—the largest he has ever seen—takes his line. For two days and two nights, Santiago holds on. The fish pulls the skiff. Santiago’s hands bleed. His back aches. He talks to the fish, to the birds, to the sea. He kills the marlin and lashes it to his boat. Sharks come. They eat the marlin. Santiago fights them until there is nothing left to fight with. He returns to shore with the skeleton of the great fish tied to his boat. He goes home, falls asleep, and dreams of lions on the beaches of Africa.

This is Hemingway at his most elemental and hopeful: a novel about endurance, pride, and the dignity of a man who refuses to quit. The Old Man and the Sea restored Hemingway’s reputation after a decade of critical neglect—and earned him the Nobel Prize.

• Published in 1952, Hemingway’s last major work of fiction

• Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953

• Cited by the Nobel Committee as a key reason for awarding Hemingway the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954

Available in multiple formats:

• Paperback & Hardcover: Beautifully designed print editions presenting the complete, unabridged text made to last.

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• Audiobook: Professionally narrated, complete and unabridged, available on all major audiobook platforms.

A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ears—or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that the measure of a man is not whether he wins, but how he loses.

About the Author

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, he served as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in World War I. The Old Man and the Sea was his first major work since For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Hemingway had been criticized for the uneven quality of his later work, and Across the River and into the Trees (1950) was widely panned. The Old Man and the Sea was a triumphant comeback. The novel sold 5.3 million copies in its first two years and was adapted into a film starring Spencer Tracy. Hemingway drew on his own experiences fishing off the coast of Cuba, where he lived for much of the 1940s and 1950s. The character of Santiago is based on a real Cuban fisherman, Gregorio Fuentes. Hemingway died by suicide in 1961. He is buried in Ketchum, Idaho.