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In 1952, Ernest Hemingway proved his critics wrong. They had long since written him off: The American had nothing more to say, they said, and his excessive lifestyle was taking its toll. But then The Old Man and the Sea appeared – and this novella became a resounding success. It sold better than all the other books Hemingway had written up to that point. The story of Santiago, a Cuban fisherman who makes the catch of his life and loses it back to the sea, touched people deeply. Giving up is not an option for this old man, no matter how adverse the conditions. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated," was Hemingway's message. His audience nodded appreciatively; after all, he had thus shown himself that he, too, could get up again. Two years later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for this work.
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