On the eighty-fifth day of no catches, old Cuban fisherman Santiago sets out past the shallows of his usual fishing grounds to break his streak of bad luck. Without his younger apprentice Manolin to help him, Santiago struggles to reel in the biggest catch of his life—a giant marlin that pulls his boat along for three days and three nights. Once his prey is captured, Santiago must fight off other dangers to make his way home again.

First published in 1952, and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's version of the classical hero's journey. Seeing himself reflected in the marlin's struggle to survive, Santiago refuses to give into defeat and continues to fight despite the odds.

"Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is."

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