Santiago is the old man who sets out in his skiff, alone on the 85^th day of fishing without a catch. With only “the boy” in his life, the old man is wise, savvy, strong, and resigned but not fully prepared to battle the 17-foot marlin he catches and wrestles with for three days, nor the sharks who destroy the fish on his return trip to the Cuban village west of Havana. Tautly told, beautifully sparse, the image of the man totally alone with the beauty and remorseless cruelty of nature and the world is a fitting allegory for the battering of age. A special story with Hemingway, like the old man, defying those who would ignore or disparage him with an heroic act of courage and dedication. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and vaulted him into the Nobel Prize in 1954.