It's often said that truth is stranger than fiction. With "In the Heart of the Sea," writer Nathaniel Philbrick has proven that the truth can be just as compelling a read as fiction.

Philbrick's book chronicles the true whaling ship tragedy that inspired Herman Melville to write the classic novel "Moby Dick." In November of 1820, the whale-hunting ship Essex of Nantucket was rammed by a sperm whale in the South Pacific. Its 20-man crew abandoned the splintered ship and spent the next three months in open whaleboats in a desperate attempt to return to the coast of South America before exposure and hunger killed them all.

"In the Heart of the Sea" is simultaneously an action-adventure story, a detail-packed history, and a study of human behavior and psychology under extreme circumstances.

Philbrick, a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association and a champion sailboat racer, launches his tale with a vivid description of Nantucket during the boom in its whaling industry. Sperm whales were killed for the oil which could be extracted from their blubber and burned in lights around the country. In a sense, whale oil was almost as vital as electricity is for lighting today.

Even under the best circumstances, however, whale hunting was an arduous and hazardous occupation. When a whaling ship left Nantucket, it could easily be gone for two or three YEARS. At sea, sailors in open boats rowed after whales that could grow to 80 feet long, harpooned them, then hauled them back to the ship. The whale carcass was tied up alongside the ship, and the blubber was peeled off and boiled down into oil, which was stored in huge casks until the ship returned to port.

With their immense size, a sperm whale could capsize and severely damage an open whaleboat with a flick of its tail or simply by surfacing beneath a boat. Through much of the history of the whaling industry, however, whales rarely attacked sailors or even aggressively defended themselves.

Drawing on written accounts of survivors of the Essex, author Philbrick captures one such rare attack in which the hunters suddenly became prey.

What makes the narrative especially effective is Philbrick's ability to paint a complete visual picture of the voyage, which is fascinating even before the whale attack. For example, en route to the South Pacific, the Essex stopped at the Galapagos Islands, where its crew captured almost 200 tortoises to carry back to port for sale as food. The giant tortoises could live for more than a year without food or water, and most were simply stacked (live) in the hold for the remainder of the voyage.

After recounting the attack, Philbrick's book details the struggles of the men as they rationed what little food and fresh water they had for their long voyage in the whaleboats. "In the Heart of the Sea" incorporates not just detail about the whaling industry, but also Philbrick's research into the ravages of starvation and dehydration on the human body, as well as the psychological toll the sailors faced during their plight.

At one point, the sailors hung over the sides of their boats to pick barnacle-like growths off the hull and eat them. After weeks of malnutrition, however, they found themselves almost too weak to pull themselves back into the boats when they were done. As food ran out and members of the crew began to die, the remaining sailors of the Essex were forced to decide whether to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Philbrick's combination of straightforward storytelling and you-are-there detail results in a page-turner as captivating as the Mount Everest storm saga "Into Thin Air." "In the Heart of the Sea" offers insight into the rigors endured by whalemen, the ever-challenging relationship between human beings and nature, and the ability of people to survive under the most daunting odds imaginable. Read "In the Heart of the Sea," and you'll easily understand why this true story inspired Melville to write his masterpiece, "Moby Dick." You'll also be glad Nathaniel Philbrick decided to offer a fresh account of the doomed Essex.

Grade: A