An Iceland Fisherman

The sea takes what it wants. In the gray Breton port of Paimpol, young Gaud loves Yann, a towering Iceland fisherman whose face bears the marks of northern winds. Each summer, Yann and his crew aboard the Marie sail for the cold, storm-wracked waters beyond Iceland, leaving their women to wait and worry through the long months of absence. Their love is real and tender, but the ocean's call is merciless, and Loti understands that some men belong more to the sea than to the arms that hold them. Pierre Loti renders the North Atlantic as a living presence, its fog and silence and relentless danger rendered with the precision of a man who knew these waters intimately. This is a book about what it means to love someone whose work might kill them, and about the particular sorrow of those who stay behind.