An adventure story and a deeply considered meditation upon the sea itself.
"Beautiful and original...a resonant and symbolical story of nine doomed men who dream of an earthly paradise as the world winds down around them." --
NewsweekAbout the AuthorPeter Matthiessen was born in New York City in 1927 and had already begun his writing career by the time he graduated from Yale University in 1950. The following year, he was a founder of
The Paris Review. Besides
At Play in the Fields of the Lord, which was nominated for the National Book Award, he has published six other works of fiction, including
Far Tortuga and
Killing Mister Watson. Mr. Matthiessen's parallel career as a naturalist and explorer has resulted in numerous widely acclaimed books of nonfiction, among them
The Tree Where Man Was Born, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and
The Snow Leopard, which won it. He died in 2014.