Book description
Winner of the 2024 Albertine Translation Prize
The metaphysically disorienting tale of a captain who loses control of her thinking—and her crew—aboard a cargo ship in the Atlantic.
A female captain in a male-dominated field, the unnamed narrator of Ultramarine has secured her success through strict adherence to protocol; she…
Why read it?
1 author picked Ultramarine as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Mariette Navarro’s 2025 work is part of an interesting recent sub-genre of austere European novellas set in an unspecified, unnerving near-future.
Coping with her father’s dementia, a female ship’s captain allows her male crew an unusual naked night swim. Afterwards, she realizes there’s a new, unregistered man aboard.
Ultramarine is absorbing, entranced, and psychologically rich; refreshing among current fiction, its ambiguity requires as much dream analysis as literary interpretation. It’s been superbly translated by Eve Hill-Agnus.
From Laurence's list on The best novellas that transcend time.
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