By Mariette Navarro
Translated by Eve Hill-Agnus
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
Ultramarine begins when the female 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?
The beauty of language comes first in Ultramarine. Navarro’s novel pays gorgeous attention to the way the language can mimic the rocking of the boat, the way imagery can convey the vastness of the sea. Brilliant psychological suspense and extraordinary poetry lingers in every word, every sentence.
Navarro has penned a poetic and profound novel that plummets the reader into the psychological realm as well as strikingly deft, restrained and lucidly lyrical prose and pared-down dialogue. In Eve Hill-Agnus's translation, Mariette Navarro establishes herself 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.
Eve Hill-Agnus is a Franco-American writer, editor, and translator. This is her first novel-length translation.