Ultramarine - by Mariette Navarro (Paperback)

About the Book

"Ultramarine begins when [a] female [ship] captain agrees to let her crew stop the engines and go for a swim. But when they return, the crew of mariners is not the original 20, but 21. When the ship itself begins behaving strangely, a haunting question emerges: is she hallucinating, or is this real?"--

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2024 Albertine Translation Prize

The metaphysically disorienting tale of a captain who loses control of her thinking--and her crew--aboard a cargo ship in the Atlantic.

A female captain in a male-dominated field, the unnamed narrator of Ultramarine has secured her success through strict adherence to protocol; she now manages a crew of twenty men and helms her own vessel. Uncharacteristically, one day, she allows her crew to cut the engines and swim in the deep open water. Returning from this moment of leisure, the crew of mariners no longer totals twenty men: now, they are twenty-one.

Sparse and psychological, Ultramarine grips the reader in a tussle with reality, its rhythmic language mimicking the rocking of the boat. As instruments fail, weather reports contradict the senses, and the ship's navigation mechanisms break down, Navarro "lulls her readers into accepting the unacceptable" (Asymptote) through deft, lyrical prose and pared-down dialogue. In Eve Hill-Agnus's poetic translation, Mariette Navarro emerges as an exciting, mature voice in French literature.

Review Quotes

Winner of the 2024 Albertine Translation Prize

"This captivating saga lures and disturbs in equal measure." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"With Ultramarine, Mariette Navarro gives us an eerily beautiful portal into the submerged depths of our own interior worlds." --Asymptote

"The burden of power, and how it might be exercised, is explored in Mariette Navarro's beguiling fiction." --The Irish Times

"A taut exploration of how the imaginable confronts the unbelievable. And the novel's beauty rests in figuring out which is which." --Chicago Review of Books

"Hill-Agnus' rendering of Navarro's work for English readers demonstrates an exceptional ability to capture the essence of another's creative mind." --On the Seawall

"Upon this ship adorned with sinewy language and buried within a labyrinthine hold of memories and cigarette butts, Navarro has created a parable in which life, through happenstance, sorrow and surprise triumphs sideways over death." --New City

About the Author

Mariette Navarro is an educator, novelist, and dramaturg. She has been part of the Comédie de Béthune since 2014. She was also associated with the Scènes du Jura for the 2015-2016 season and the théâtre de l'Aquarium for the 2017-2018 season. Since 2016, she has co-directed the Grands fonds collection with Cheyne éditeur. Her plays include Nous les vagues followed by Célébrations (Quartett, 2011), Prodiges(R) (Quartett, 2012), Les Feux de poitrine (Quartett, 2015), Les Chemins contraires (Cheyne éditeur, 2016), Zone à étendre (Quartett, 2018), Les Hérétiques (Quartett, 2018), and Les Désordres imaginaires (Quartett, 2020). Her novella Alors Carcasse (Cheyne éditeur, 2011) won the Robert-Walser Prize 2012. Ultramarine is her first novel.

Eve Hill-Agnus is a Franco-American writer, editor, and translator. This is her first novel-length translation.