Ultramarine

By Mariette Navarro
Translated by Eve Hill-Agnus

Winner of the 2024 Albertine Translation Prize

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

Publication Date: March 4th, 2025

Paperback ISBN: 9781646053575
eBook ISBN: 9781646053698

Description

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.

Biographical Note

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® (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.