Review of A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst

Sophie Elmhirst's A Marriage at Sea is the true story of a couple whose sailing trip to New Zealand becomes a fight for survival. This is nonfiction that seems too incredible to be true, and I was hooked on the details of their 118-day-long struggles on the ocean.

Sophie Elmhirst revisits a decades-old true story that she crafts like fiction, skillfully using dry firsthand accounts and subsequent interviews to build a fascinating, fluid, compelling nonfiction book about a couple whose ambitious sailing trip from England to New Zealand was abruptly halted when a whale breached beneath their sailboat, capsizing it.

Elmhirst manages to shape a suspenseful nonfiction work despite the Maralyn and Maurice's significant periods of isolation, struggle, and repetitive tasks. She delves into their inner lives, exploring the workings of their relationship and fleshing out an intriguing dynamic against the unforgiving backdrop of the endless-seeming expanse of ocean and 118 days of clawing for survival.

The story's pacing doesn't flag, although the tale sets a slower tempo as Maurice and Maralyn settle into a daily pattern of fishing, gathering water, and struggling to keep their minds occupied--a measure that is largely driven by Maralyn. Maurice is frank about his deteriorating emotional state and his reliance upon Maralyn's unfailing determination. Incredibly, they meticulously plan their next boat's design and begin to plot a route for when they embark on their next sailing trip. (The design and trip ultimately adhere closely to these plans.) Maralyn imagines outfits to sew, dinner party menus she will make, and more.

When she noted the happenings of the day, however bleak, the day was proven to be real and her faculties intact. The writing was the proof. The lists, the menus, and the clothes were reminders that such things still existed. Solid things, on solid ground, that she could make with her own hands. She was still alive. Look, it said so on the page.

Their fishing is reliant upon safety pins, their flares don't light when they spy boats passing through the nearby shipping lanes, and eventually, their inflatable dinghy and life raft both begin to leak. Their rainwater is contaminated, their canned goods rust inside, and their clothes rot away. Yet they gather more water; they use fish guts to catch additional fish; they snatch birds that land upon their floating craft and eat them; and they pull sharks into the boat, butcher them, and eat their livers. Their evolving resourcefulness is incredible to witness, and it's fascinating to read about the renewed vigor with which the couple--and particularly Maralyn--faces each new, potentially deadly, challenge.

A Marriage at Sea is nonfiction that reads like fiction.

More Nonfiction I've Loved

If you love nonfiction books, you might like the titles on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Compelling Nonfiction Reads , Six Favorite Nonfiction and Memoir Reads of the Year, Six Nonfiction and Memoir Reads I Loved, Six of My Favorite Nonfiction Reads, or these other nonfiction books I've reviewed.