This memoir explores Calidas’s decision to swap city life for a remote Hebridean island. A series of devastating events leads to the breakdown of her marriage, and Calidas finds herself alone and isolated, cast away from the places and people she knows. Ultimately, it is the power of nature and the rhythm of the tides that offer both a healing and an awakening. It’s a book about solitude, resilience and survival.
No list of castaway books would be complete without this 1954 novel, following a group of British schoolboys who become stranded on an uninhabited island. At first, they try to create an organised, civilised and safe place to live, but their attempts quickly descend into unruly chaos. We become witness to the base cruelties that branch from desperation and a hunger for power.