The Old Man and the Sea
Santiago, the old man of the title, is a fisherman in Cuba who hasn’t caught a fish in months. The townspeople think he is cursed, but remarkably he is quietly determined. He goes to sea every day, returns empty-handed, until one day he snares the biggest fish he can imagine, and he pursues it for three days. This is an extraordinary story, simple, unnerving, suspenseful, and deeply personal. Hemingway was famous for simple diction—ordinary words used in unusual ways, sentences arranged in a way that’s direct, often arresting. Try spending days at sea alone with a man and his thoughts, delusions, and aspirations.
Ernest Hemingway