At this stage it takes a lot for a book to make me feel this smitten. Very, very rare.

But “A Marriage at Sea” falls in that category.

Simple summary. A couple leaves England for New Zealand, is hit by a whale and drifts in a raft for 117 days before rescue.

But what a story in the details told by Sophie Elmhirst. I alternated between gagging at survival methods to filling with emotion about how they survived and were rescued.

Elmhirst is an accomplished English journalist, but this is her first book. Amazing. What a storyteller. Her understated writing makes it even more powerful.

It is a compact 240 page book and I didn’t skip past anything, another amazing fact.

Do yourself a favor. Read it but don’t eat fish while you do it.