The classic bestseller from the Pulitzer Prize winner dramatizes the
rise of totalitarianism in the 1930s in a sweeping story of a
transatlantic cruise featuring a cast of unforgettable characters,
The story takes place in the summer of 1931, on board a cruise ship
bound for Germany. Passengers include a Spanish noblewoman, a drunken
German lawyer, an American divorcee, a pair of Mexican Catholic priests.
This ship of fools is a crucible of intense experience, out of which
everyone emerges forever changed. Rich in incident, passion, and
treachery, the novel explores themes of nationalism, cultural and ethnic
pride, and basic human frailty that are as relevant today as they were
when the book was first published in 1962.