The second novel in William Golding’s To the Ends of the Earth trilogy, following Rites of Passage. There's a lil paperback for sale here too, if you need to catch up! 

Set aboard a crowded sailing ship bound for Australia in the early 19th century, Close Quarters narrows its focus to life below deck. It kind of reminds me of Snowpiercer, in the way it traces class friction, illness, boredom, ritual, and quiet cruelty. It's quite intense what proximity does to people when hierarchy is fixed and escape is impossible.

Formally controlled, darkly observant, and deliberately uncomfortable, this is Golding working at a mature register, using the ship as a closed social system rather than a metaphor factory.