The Book Review

Today we want to bring back an episode from our archives.  It’s about a book that has real beach read vibes. There’s a lot of water. It’s a relationship drama. And it’s also a daring story of survival.  “Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck" made it onto the Book Review Top 10 Books of 2025 and the paperback edition just came out a few weeks ago. It tells the unbelievable story of a British couple in the 1970s who try to sail around the world. They’re trying to reach New Zealand and they almost make it. But their boat gets capsized by a whale in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean and they’re forced to survive there for quite a while.  Here is our conversation from last year with the author, Sophie Elmhirst.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you can’t tell your Eurylochus from your Telemachus, fear not: Your primer on “The Odyssey” is here, just in time for Christopher Nolan’s new film adaptation of the 3,000-year-old epic. Madeline Miller, who reinvented “The Odyssey” in her best-selling novel “Circe,” explains why you shouldn’t be intimidated by the classic. Plus, our critic at large A.O. Scott explains how nearly every genre out there — sci-fi, romance, bloody revenge and more — can be found in this poem’s sprawling tale. Books and Other Works Discussed on This Episode: “Philoctetes,” by Sophocles “The Iliad,” by Homer “The Penelopiad,” by Margaret Atwood “Watership Down,” by Richard Adams “Aeneid,” by Virgil “I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem,” by Maryse Condé “An American Marriage,” by Tayari Jones “The Buddha in the Attic,” by Julie Otsuka Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.