The Oceans and the Stars

Part lyrical love story, part naval adventure, and part modern morality tale, this epic new novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Winter’s Tale and Paris in the Present Tense showcases Mark Helprin’s powers as a master storyteller.

Stephen Rensselaer, a Navy captain near the end of his career, is a man who speaks truth to power despite the consequences. So when he’s called upon to defend a politically doomed program involving the development of a new class of ship, he does not hesitate. The program will almost certainly be cancelled after its first prototype, the Athena, patrol coastal ship 15, is finished, and he will then be assigned to command it, his place on the promotion list for admiral all but forgotten.

Rensselaer has the courage of conviction to carry on with a sense of purpose, though. While supervising the outfitting of the Athena in New Orleans, he meets a brilliant lawyer named Katy Desper, with whom he falls in love. Soon thereafter, he is deployed to the Persian Gulf. However, while refuelling and taking on provisions in Israel, he is assigned a very different—and top secret—mission that will put his morality to the ultimate test.

As Rensselaer perseveres over the course of seven battles, a mutiny, and a court martial, Katy is the beacon that lights his way home. An enthralling new novel about the virtues of living by the laws of conscience and decency, The Oceans and the Stars takes readers on a heroic odyssey that is nothing short of a masterpiece.