Maurice and Maralyn Bailey couldn’t have been more different, yet so perfect for each other. He was solitary and compulsive, while she was charming and enterprising. Neither wanted a conventional lifestyle—Maurice was looking for an escape, and Maralyn was looking for an adventure. Maralyn sparked a plan to sell their home and live meagerly while Maurice oversaw the construction of their boat, and they finally quit working. Maurice and Maralyn took on separate responsibilities—his was navigatio...

"For what else is a marriage, really, if not being stuck on a small raft with someone and trying to survive?" Maurice and Maralyn Bailey were an odd couple by all the usual standards. Despite very different personalities — Maurice riddled with self-doubts, awkward anxiety, and rigid peculiarities, Maralyn adventurous and a bit spiritual, with a stubborn positivity streak — they both agreed they very much weren’t into the usual domestic allure of the 1960s-1970s, desiring neither a settled dom...

I saw that *Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea* by Sophie Elmhirst was one of President Barack Obama's top reads for 2025, so I listened to it on audiobook, and it is absolutely riveting! It's a true story about a British couple, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, who set sail in June 1972 on their yacht, the Auralyn. Their plan was to reach New Zealand. But on their way to the Galapagos Islands, disaster struck: on March 4, 1973, their yacht was hit by a breaching whale. The yach...

Sophie Elmhirst is a major new writer (of books, though she's been a journalist for ages). No messing around. No showing off. Just a fascinating story told clearly and beautifully. If you want to write, read Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea. The LIGHTEST touch. I am wildly impressed. God damn; I feel like a master magician just pulled a trick right in front of my eyes. This is a must-read for fans of survival stories and compelling memoirs.

In my personal reading experience, Sophie Elmhirst's *Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea* has a whale of a problem, maybe even a whole pod of them. I feel like I can say this because a) we already know everyone survived – no spoilers! – and b) media outlets and other reviewers have been perplexingly generous towards *Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea*, showering it with praise to a truly baffling degree. So, here I am, stuck on Flummoxed Island, but the...

I honestly don't know what the point of this was...I always feel weird rating memoirs. It feels like I’m passing judgment on someone’s life, and that just feels wrong. That’s not what this review is about. *Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea* has such a compelling subject matter, following a couple who were stranded at sea for 118 days. But, truthfully, I don’t know why this book exists. I'm looking for gripping true stories and survival tales, but this wasn't it.Sophie Elmh...

I really enjoyed "Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea". The first two-thirds of Sophie Elmhirst's book are stronger than the ending, in my opinion. It's a truly wild story, and Elmhirst does a great job building the suspense. Overall, it's a quick and super enjoyable read – definitely a good choice if you're looking for gripping adventure book reviews.

Since an audiobook wasn't available, Simon and I took turns reading *Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea* aloud. It was incredibly interesting to delve into another couple's journey and witness how their marriage endured the trials of being shipwrecked for one hundred and eighteen and two-thirds days. We paused frequently, sometimes overcome with emotion, and other times to discuss our reactions to what we'd just read. On day sixty of their shipwreck, Maralyn "noted how rare...

“You only truly possess that which you cannot lose in a shipwreck.” ‎― أبو حامد الغزالي This is the incredible true story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey’s 118 days adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Maurice and Maralyn Bailey were feeling trapped by their lives. They had a perfectly nice new home, a car, and good jobs, but it wasn’t enough. So, after a lot of talking and planning, they sold the house and everything they owned, left a crisis-ridden England of the 1970s in their beautiful ne...

I'd never heard of Maurice and Maralyn, the shipwrecked couple, before picking up Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. Honestly, it's almost unbelievable that this actually happened and that they genuinely survived months adrift in the Pacific on a tiny raft. Just incredible. My partner and I were cracking up because Maurice's immediate impulse to give up, versus Maralyn's completely bonkers optimism being the only thing keeping them going, is *exactly* ho...