A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

“My favorite book of 2025. I’ve made so many people in my life read it so we can talk about it together.”

“One of the most compelling works of nonfiction I’ve ever read that could easily be read in 1-2 sittings. A beautiful love story 🥲 So well researched it feels as though Sophie Elmhurst was there when the ship went down.”

“A nonfiction book that reads like fiction. A favorite read this year.”

“"...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."”

“Sometimes you want to read a book in total, utter solitude, with only the up-and-down of your breath, and even that might be a distraction. This is such a book. Besides the story itself, there are sentences -- quiet ones, nothing crazy -- that will make you gasp, over and again. I know I did.”

“God this was good. Eerie and claustrophobic, odd couple Maurice and Maralyn find themselves shipwrecked, alone at sea for 118 days. I was GRIPPED.”

“currently reading and very engaged. beyond the gripping survival story at the core of the plot, I am (ironically) very comforted by this nautical world building, even if they're literally lost at sea. I like the part where she makes a list of all the 22 tins of food they have on board, and how she calculates their water rations. I relax to the routine of them repainting and repacking their ship at every port. The simplicity of living at sea. I've dog eared a few quietly hilarious passages, and a few incredibly poignant ones. I really like her style of writing. curious for each and every page!”

“I blazed through this. Utterly riveting story and a fascinating look at an inscrutable relationship in extreme crisis.”

“just totally and completely wild story!!”

“Just finished this and lemme tell ya. If I’m ever shipwrecked by a whale I’m letting the sea take me. Ain’t no way I’m fighting for my life for 118 days on a dinghy/raft enduring what this couple did. And I’m CERTAINLY not giving it a second go after I’ve survived the first time. Couldn’t be me but good on them 😂 Made for a riveting read!”

“I love true stories of survival against the odds.”

“I’m not a fast reader but I polished off A Marriage at Sea in a matter of days. It is, as the cover says, a true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck. A young couple sells their home, buys a boat, and sets sail, leaving land and their lives behind indefinitely. But the book is also about how much we rely on each other, what it means to do the thing you’re truly meant to do in the world, and how essential hope is to our survival (relevant) because so much of the human experience is both uncertain and unknowable. There’s a passage in the book where reporters can’t get the details right about the type of whale that wrecked the couple’s boat. So of course, the man realizes, they’ll never be able to put into words, let alone understand, what it was like to be adrift in a raft and utterly lost at sea for months, completely exposed to the weather, catching sharks and filleting turtles, surviving by your wits and luck alone. Apparently, it’s really the kind of thing you had to be there for.”

“I love nonfiction books about adventures that turn into disasters (morbid curiosity I guess). This one is incredibly engrossing”

“[THESSALY'S FIVE]”