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Top 10 books about castaways

From the dark visions in Lord of the Flies or The Beach to the gentle wit of Tove Jansson, author Lucy Clarke picks her favourites tales of survival and isolation

After a long winter and lockdowns, the idea of being a castaway may seem romantic: a desert island panting beneath a high sun, nothing but endless ocean in sight. Yet peer a little closer and a harsher reality comes into view – one of extreme isolation and the brutality of survival.

When I was writing The 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 watching. When the thin veneer of civilisation peels back, how do we behave? What matters the most?

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