The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

 The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 106 pages. 

This book collects a series of newspaper articles that Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote in 1955 about a sailor in the Colombian navy who fell overboard and was stranded at sea for ten days. The story is very exciting, and allegedly true (although there are some details that range from extremely implausible to completely impossible). This was also the selection for UCPL's Read the Classics book group, and everyone seemed to like it, so I'll count that as a vote of confidence as well. The story is well told, and at 100 pages it's definitely worth the time.