But like all utopian visions, theirs had its contradictions. They’d sold all their belongings to build a boat. They were abandoning everyone they knew to live afloat, alone, unshackled from obligation and community, from all the things that bind a person to a place or its people, from the day-to-day indignities of ordinary life and the unseen rules whose weight perhaps you feel only in the place you were raised. After all, what is more self-interested than running away?
— Sophie Elmhirst, A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck (Riverhead Books, July 8, 2025)
Notes:
- One of the best books I have ever read. Highly recommended.
- NY Times Book Review: “Stranded at Sea, Would Their Marriage Survive? A Marriage at Sea” tells the stranger-than-fiction story of one couple who traded their lives for the ocean — and almost lost them.”
- “Beauty — finding it, making it — has always been an act of defiance against despair. In Elmhirst’s delicate, humane depiction of the couple, her choice of narrative framing, her pacing and her compassion, she renders “A Marriage at Sea” an act of beauty in its own right. I found myself, alternately, holding my breath as I read at top speed, wandering rooms in search of someone to read aloud to, and placing the book facedown, arrested by quiet statements that left me reeling with their depth.” — Blair Braverman.
- Sophie Elmhirst official website.
Wow, pal, that’s high praise given your voracious reading habits. But you’ve convinced me…Into the queue it goes. Just waiting for Mimi to chime in, as I am virtually certain she has already read said selection and stands ready to weigh in…few are the times I beat her to a book. 🥰
Yes, we are all waiting on Mimi!
You flatter me honey..❤️
wow, this sounds like a book full of powerful emotions and revelations
It was!
Will have to go hunting for a copy.
Loved it!
👌🏼
requested from library. on hold. something to look forward to. 🙂
Great. Hope you enjoy it.
Too late to the party once again – loved the book, or I felt all the feels – the anticipation, the infallibility of the undertaking (who even thinks that a whale can venture that close), the fear, the nakedness of all they experienced. Definitely was worth the read…
So you “loved the book” or didn’t love it and “felt all the feels”? Or both?
Feeling all the feels is a good thing – it was so evocative
Purchased and in the library. In DK we TRUST.