After a long winter and lockdowns, the idea of being a castaway can seem romantic: a desert island panting under a high sun, with nothing but endless ocean in sight. look a little closer, however, and you’ll see a harsher reality: one of extreme isolation and the brutality of survival.
When I was writing Castaways, a thriller in which a plane crash leaves a group of strangers stranded on an island in the South Pacific, I was interested in exploring who we become when no one is looking. when the thin layer of civilization peels off, how do we behave? what is the most important?
You are reading: Books about being stranded on a tropical island
The following books are the ones I adore. While the dictionary definition of castaway is “a person who has been shipwrecked and stranded in an isolated place,” my list also includes books that examine why we may seek our own isolation, whether on an island, a ship, or a lighthouse. . each explores how the removal of the familiar can provide a challenge to survival, but also a tantalizing space for self-discovery.
1. i am an island by tamsin calidasthis memoir explores calidas’ decision to exchange city life for a remote island in the hebrides. A series of devastating events leads to the breakdown of her marriage, and Calidas finds herself alone and isolated, far from the places and people she knows. Ultimately, it is the power of nature and the rhythm of the tides that offer both healing and awakening. is a book about loneliness, resilience and survival.
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2. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies No list of castaway books would be complete without this 1954 novel, which follows a group of British schoolchildren who are stranded on an uninhabited island. At first, they try to create an organized, civilized and safe place to live, but their attempts quickly turn into unruly chaos. we become witnesses to the cruel cruelties that spring from despair and the hunger for power.
3. the beach by alex garlandnick hornby once described the beach as “lord of the flies for generation x”. When backpacker Richard is handed a hand-drawn map, it promises to lead him to an unknown island and a secret beach untouched by tourism. Intrigued, Richard and two friends set out on a journey of discovery, eventually discovering a community of travelers living off the shores of a Thai island. but utopia is intertwined with darkness, and the island paradise descends into violence and madness. An entire generation of travelers (me included) packed this novel into their backpacks and headed out in search of the unknown.
4. Tove Jansson’s Summer Book Set on a small island in the Gulf of Finland, this timeless book tells the story of an elderly artist who spends a summer with her six-year-old granddaughter. together they explore the island, discovering simple pleasures in nature, like the migration of birds or the arrival of a storm. Ali Smith said that this book “reads like looking through clear water and suddenly seeing depth.” he is one to savor for his gentle wisdom and brilliant wit.
5. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the quintessential desert island adventure, first published in 1719, sees the titular castaway spend 28 years on a remote tropical island after being shipwrecked. He gradually creates a life for himself, building a house, fighting cannibals, and befriending Friday, a prisoner whose life he saves. Defoe’s inspiration for the story is believed to have come from real-life castaway Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who spent four years on an uninhabited island off the Chilean coast.
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6. dirty music by tim winton winton from australia writes landscapes and solitaires with unparalleled clarity and rawness. In Dirty Music, which was shortlisted for the 2002 Booker Prize, she writes about Lu Fox, an outcast in the tough seaside town of her childhood. When events conspire and he is thrown out of town, he decides to shipwreck on an island off the west coast of Australia. lu lives alone in the company of sharks and rays, searching for food and fishing. winton explores our communion with nature and those grainy stretches of our lives when we yearn for an island of our own.
7. Grandpa’s Island by Benji DaviesThis picture book is one of our children’s bedtime favorites. a boy climbs through a door in his grandfather’s attic, only to travel to a wild and beautiful island awash in color, where grandfather decides he should stay. is a charming and wise story about loved ones who live in our memories. the playful illustrations of an unreachable island lighten the message and leave plenty of room to discuss what comes next in life.
8. The Lamplighters by Emma StonexInspired by true events, The Lamplighters (out March 4) is set in a remote lighthouse off the coast of Cornwall. three guardians disappear from their posts, but the gate remains closed, the clocks have stopped, and the weather log details a severe storm, despite clear skies all week. Twenty years later, as what happened to the three men becomes clear, the story becomes a story of love, pain, and the profound effects of extreme isolation.
9. gift from the sea by anne morrow lindbergh most of what i write by hand in a beach shack, which is perhaps why gift from the sea is a book i return to regularly. First published in 1955, the author takes refuge in a beach hut for two weeks every year, giving herself a space to think and breathe outside her role as mother: “I must find a balance somewhere, or an alternative rhythm between these two extremes; a swing of the pendulum between solitude and communion, between withdrawal and return.” By choosing to be discarded from her family, she draws wisdom and comfort from the shells she collects, nature becomes her teacher, and the horizon provides the ideal blank space from which to create.
10. the life of pi by yann martelafter the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a 16 year old boy ends up adrift in a lifeboat for 227 days with only a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a bengal tiger as a company. how’s that for an unlikely group of castaways? pi’s journey is like an allegory of the spiritual journey of finding faith and believing in oneself. It is one of the most beloved works of modern fiction and has won many fans, including Barack Obama, who wrote a letter directly to Martel, describing the life of Pi as “an elegant test of God and the power of storytelling.”
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