The Winners by Julio Cortazar

The appearance of The Winners in the United States is a major literary event, introducing an outstanding writer of remarkable scope and presenting an absorbing and altogether irresistible novel that will attain a notable position among the best works of fiction of our day.

A widely assorted group of people win as a lottery prize a cruise—destination unknown. Their journey reads like—and is—a superb story of suspense that ranges from the most unconventional of love affairs to the violent death of one of the passengers. Part of the suspense revolves around the fact that the passengers are forbidden to cross over to the ship's stern, ostensibly because there is an epidemic among the mysterious crew.

What is the danger, the plague? Does it really exist? Where are the consolations of authority to comfort them? If this is a pleasure cruise, why are they virtual prisoners? And the lines are drawn, the passengers divide into a "war" party and a "peace" party. But which one will insist upon breaking through the barriers and which one will bow to the ship's law?