A Marriage at Sea

A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

De: Sophie Elmhirst

Narrado por: Marisa Calin

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

“Such an emotionally vivid portrait of a couple in isolation that I was shocked it wasn’t fiction. How could a writer get so deeply into the minds of two real people in such extraordinary circumstances? … So brilliantly depicted.” – Elle

“A beautiful meditation on endurance, codependence, and the power of love. A dazzling book.” – Patrick Radden Keefe

“An enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit.” —Bill Bryson

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.

Fascinating true story of survival

Loved the narration and the accuracy of the details, based on the carefully kept records both of them kept during their ordeal

Should have been a long article

There is not enough here for a whole book. While this story of the couple at sea is fascinating, and the before story is mildly interesting, the after story is too long and boring with details of what countries they visited, what accolades they received, but very little about the next voyage, which must have been unremarkable. Also, it is mis titled. It is not really about the marriage ar sea Simply the survival, which is admittedly astonishing. There is not enough detail about the emotional lives of the characters or the relationship at sea. Perhaps that is unknowable, since it was written mostly from their own accounts.

Loved learning about 117 Days Adrift from another angle

I enjoyed this book tremendously. I love the ocean and understand more fully why Maurice and Marilyn Bailey loved it too.

Based on a True Story!

It’s a good story, but even more so because it was based on real life events. I don’t think most people would have the grit to survive in these circumstances. It was well written, and the characters were relatable. Definitely worth to read!

Thoughtful and adventuresome

I am a boater. I recently built a boat from scratch and then piloted it on a 2000 mile round trip from Washington to Alaska. I therefore came into this book interested in the nautical adventure, but didn’t expect a nuanced account of a couple’s life together that stretch for decades after the incident that left them stranded.
I thought the author did a very good job of building these people as authentic tic if somewhat awkward human beings. The love story of the couple was tenderly portrayed but didn’t gloss over the warts and scars.
I could say more but I don’t want to spoil it. It was good. It’s less nautical than I expected, but that’s ok.