Un matrimonio en alta mar / A Marriage at Sea

Una historia real de amor, obsesión y supervivencia en condiciones extremas. El fenómeno inesperado de la no ficción del año.

Maurice y Maralyn forman una pareja enamorada de la libertad: cansados de su vida en un pequeño pueblo inglés, deciden vender su casa, construir un barco y abandonar Inglaterra. Durante casi un año sus sueños se hacen realidad, hasta que un día, en plena inmensidad del Pacífico, un cachalote emerge del agua, embiste el velero y rompe el casco en dos. Lo que sigue es una sobrecogedora lucha por sobrevivir en el océano y soportarse mutuamente, mientras su matrimonio se enfrenta a la prueba más difícil: han logrado huir del mundo, pero no de sí mismos.

Un matrimonio en alta mar cuenta la historia real de una joven pareja que naufragó en alta mar: un relato fascinante sobre la obsesión, la supervivencia y una relación sometida a las condiciones más extremas.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER & ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF 2025

ALSO NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2025 BY NPR, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, AND MORE.

“This is nonfiction that reads like fiction – the best kind. Elmhirst’s retelling is a triumph, second only to the seemingly impossible feat of Maurice and Maralyn themselves. You won’t be able to put it down.” –USA Today

“Remarkable… 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.” –The New York Times

An instant New York Times bestseller, this is the electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits.

Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away?

Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But in June 1972, Maurice and Maralyn set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves.

What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests. Although they could run away from the world, they can’t run away from themselves.

Taut, propulsive, and dazzling, A Marriage at Sea pairs an adrenaline-fueled high seas adventure with a gutting love story that asks why we love difficult people, and who we become under the most extreme conditions imaginable.