Ernest Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and it went some way to securing him the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year. It's hard to imagine Hemingway's short story about an old man's travails would be a serious competitor today, which isn't to say it's a bad book. It's just a reflection of how tastes and perceptions have changed.

This is the first of Hemingway's works I've read (at 37 I'm a late starter) and I was surprised at the simplicity of the language used, and of the tale told. It's a story of friendship, adversity, futility and old-age. An old Havana fisherman, Santiago, hasn't made a catch in 84 days. His friend, Manolin, is a young boy who cares for Santiago but is no longer allowed to fish with him - Manolin's parents want him to fish on a luckier boat.

'Age is my alarm clock', the old man said. 'Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?'

Santiago sets out to fish alone on his 85th day and what follows is one of the greatest struggles and challenges the old man has faced in his long years. For me the book is essentially an illustration of the human desire to overcome, and to not give in without a fight - whether that's the fish or his old age, deep down the ultimate futility is known to him, yet still Santiago shows indominatable spirit in his persistent struggle. It's not a hard read, and at just over 100 pages neither is it a long read, but it is certainly a rewarding one.