A propulsive work of narrative nonfiction by the survivor of one of the most chilling diving tragedies in recent history. Mixing the immersive urgency of The Perfect Storm, the psychological depth of Into the Wild, and the investigative precision of Into the Raging Sea, ADRIFT brings readers into the heart of a catastrophe that unfolded 300 miles off the Colombian coast — and the haunting aftermath that reshaped every life touched by it.

ADRIFT
by Peter Morse
Pegasus, TBD 2027
(via The Martell Agency)

On what should have been a routine final dive in sight of Malpelo, a forbidding sheer barren rock of an island with a fascinating but eerie history, five divers surfaced far from their boat, swept into a fast-moving current with no emergency beacon and no hope of being seen. As darkness fell and sharks circled, Morse made a harrowing decision: to leave the group and attempt a solo swim back to the boat — a choice that would save lives, cost others, and haunt every survivor for years. Told through multiple points of view — including Hernán and Jorge, the two men who drifted for 50 hours, and the families of the deceased — this is not simply a survival story. It is a reckoning with hubris, systemic failure, institutional negligence, and the profound psychological toll of surviving when others did not.

What distinguishes ADRIFT is its dual power as both memoir and investigative reconstruction. Morse pairs his firsthand testimony with years of interviewing survivors, boat crew, families, park rangers, investigators, and local officials. The result is a layered, riveting narrative — visceral in its immediacy, cinematic in its scope, and deeply human in its emotional resonance.

What ultimately makes this project so compelling — and so commercial — is its rare combination of high-stakes survival, psychological depth, and investigative revelation. It speaks to readers of Krakauer, Junger, Grann, Larson, and Susan Casey; to viewers of true-adventure documentary series; and to anyone drawn to stories about resilience, moral ambiguity, and the hard truths about what went wrong.

Peter Morse is a marine zoologist with a PhD in animal cognition; his scenes beneath the Pacific pulse with scientific insight and poetic clarity, grounding the book in the lived reality of currents, predators, and oceanic physics. Morse has meaningful promotional partners in the marine conservation world — influencers and organizations with platforms ranging from 14K to over 550K followers.