Set along the Cuban coast of Havana, 'The Old Man and the Sea' follows the story of an old fisherman, Santiago. Although once adept at his skill, Santiago is now aging and hasn't seen a good catch in ages. People consider him unlucky. He has the young Manolin as companion, whom he has mentored since the boy was a child. However, when the failing fisherman goes without hauling fish from the sea for eighty-four days in a row, even Manolin is advised by his parents to quit the companionship of Santiago and seek better fortune elsewhere. In a bid to put an end to the bad luck that has befallen him, Santiago sails into the Gulf Stream, off the coast of Florida, on the eighty-fifth day. The major portion of the story revolves around the ordeals of Santiago as he manages to bait a big fish which he assumes is a marlin and struggles to bring it to the shore. Three days of constant struggle to catch the marlin is described in utmost detail with the aged fisherman getting wounded and hysterical but finally managing to reach ashore only to prove to the world and to Manolin, that his luck could shine as well. Written in simplistic language, with plenty of allegorical inclusions about religion, faith and bravery, 'The Old Man and the Sea' won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953. The essence of the story is to imprint the readers' minds with the idea that faith and confidence, coupled with a little courage, can make one sail through unending hardships, irrespective of time and age. With a simple moral delivered through a classic fable-like story about a man, his protege and a fish, this book had a huge role to play in Hemingway being awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature, and should be read for its widely-acclaimed style of writing.