Ernest Hemingway · 1937 · sea

Hemingway's only novel set in America, written between 1935 and 1937 while he went back and forth to Spain. Harry Morgan runs a charter boat out of Key West, is cheated of three weeks' fees by a rich client, and starts carrying things across the ninety miles to Cuba that cannot legally be carried - and the crossing kills him.

1. 1
   Havana

   The novel opens at a cafe near the docks: three Cubans asking Harry to run them to the States, his refusal because he will not carry anything that can talk - and then a car pulls up and machine guns them in the street.

2. 2
   The Gulf Stream

   Marlin fishing with Mr Johnson, who loses Harry's tackle over the side and then leaves for Miami without paying for three weeks - and a charter captain with a wife and three daughters is suddenly finished.

3. 3
   Key West

   Depression Key West and the Conchs: no work, no money, veterans drinking themselves stupid on relief wages - the have-nots of the title, and the town Hemingway was living in while he wrote it.

4. 4
   Mariel

   The runs begin. Twelve Chinese put aboard for four hundred dollars a head, the middleman killed, and the passengers set ashore in Cuba instead of Florida - after which Harry does not pretend to himself any more.

5. 5
   Havana

   The last job: four Cuban revolutionaries who have robbed a bank and need to get home. They shoot Albert on the dock before they are clear, and Harry takes them out into the stream with a Thompson gun hidden under the wheel.

6. 6
   Key West

   He kills all four and is shot through the belly doing it, and the coastguard finds the Queen Conch drifting - and he dies on the dock saying a man alone hasn't got a bloody chance, which took him all night to get out.