The Shadow-Line

by Joseph Conrad

A young sailor is unexpectedly made captain of a ship with a mysterious past and sails out confidently, only to face a crisis beyond anything he could have imagined. As he struggles to sail the vessel past a ghostly "shadow-line" at sea, the tragic figure of the previous captain looms in the crew's minds and a deadly illness rips through the ship. One of Conrad's later works, The Shadow-Line is a suspenseful nautical tale that hauntingly captures the painful transition from youth to maturity and the terrifying reality of life at sea.