This novella, 126 pages long, was written about and for fishermen. An old fisherman, Santiago, living in a village near the beaches of Havana, Cuba, makes his daily living off what he catches from the sea. Hemingway in his spare prose shows how the fisherman ekes out a life while befriending a local boy showing him the ropes of being a fisherman.

At the beginning of the story, Santiago has not caught anything for 84 days. The bulk of the story revolves around the fisherman’s going out alone on the 85th morning before dawn. It is not an unusual day; Santiago expects to return to his hut at the end of the day. It is not to be. Santiago hooks a large fish — how big he cannot tell until days later. As the fish tows Santiago and his skiff further out to sea, northeast, out of view of the Havana harbor, the old fisherman plans on how to bring the fish around so that he use his harpoon to kill the fish.

Days and nights pass before Santiago is successful. In that time, he and the fish become brothers in spirit even as only one can live. Hemingway shows the old fisherman’s life as one consisting of loneliness, privation, sorrow, and pain. Yet, Santiago is content with the simple goodness that fishing has also given him, rich with the connections of other fishermen, and fulfilling as a mentor to the boy, who never forgets his friend.