This novel recounts the ordeal of a sailor who is washed overboard and survives 10 days alone at sea. Originally published as a series of factual articles in a Bogota newspaper, this true story was reincarnated as a novella 15 years later, in 1970. Based on the experiences of a crew member on a Colombian ship who miraculously survived a wreck that killed his shipmates, Garcia Marquez's account of the ordeal is a powerful work of fictionalized truth.