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The Khao San Road, Bangkok - first stop on the backpacker trail. On Richard's first night there a fellow traveller slits his wrists, leaving Richard a map to 'the Beach'. The Beach is legendary: white sands circling a lagoon hidden from the sea, coral gardens and freshwater falls surrounded by jungle. In this earthly paradise, it is rumoured, a select community lives in blissful innocence. For Richard, haunted by the glamour of Vietnam movies, a trek into the unknown Thai territory is irresistible. He was looking for adventure. Now he's found it.
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Review:
In our ever-shrinking world, where popular Western culture seems to have infected every nation on the planet, it is hard to find even a small niche of unspoiled land--forget searching for pristine islands or continents. This is the situation in Alex Garland's debut novel, The Beach. Human progress has reduced Eden to a secret little beach near Thailand. In the tradition of grand adventure novels, Richard, a rootless traveller rambling around Thailand on his way somewhere else, is given a hand-drawn map by a madman who calls himself Daffy Duck. He and two French travellers set out on a journey to find this paradise.
Review:
What makes this a truly satisfying novel is the number of levels on which it operates. On the surface it's a fast-paced adventure novel; at another level it explores why we search for these utopias, be they mysterious lost continents or small island communes. Garland weaves a gripping and thought-provoking narrative that suggests we are, in fact, such products of our Western culture that we cannot help but pollute and ultimately destroy the very sanctuary we seek. --Amazon.com
A gripping adventure, and a fascinating jigsaw (The Times)
Fresh, fast-paced, compulsive and clever (Nick Hornby)
A white-knuckle ride into the heart of darkness (Sunday Times)
Lord of the Flies and The Magus lurk at the roots of this novel, but Garland reshapes them with panache into something terrifyingly new (Mail on Sunday)
A mesmerising, knuckle-clenching read (Maxim)
Winningly compulsive, brilliantly conceived (Q)
Garland's prose is stunningly lucid. Addictive and compelling (Spectator)
A highly confident debut...this incisive novel may well come to be regarded as a defining text in the history of imaginative travel writing (Daily Telegraph)
Alex Garland is writing a brand new kind of adventure novel. His style is dangerously simple yet altogether captivating (Douglas Rushkoff)
An exceptional first novel...An action novel that provokes subtle responses, The Beach takes in ideas about man's inevitable progress from noble savage to social breakdown (and) the related tradition of nature versus art (The Times Literary Supplement)
Garland has written a powerful and frighteningly believable novel (Company)
Precise and speedy prose, with good old-fashioned romantic adventure spiced up with deadpan authorial irony (Guardian)
Fresh, fast-paced, compulsive and clever (Nick Hornby)
A white-knuckle ride into the heart of darkness (Sunday Times)
Lord of the Flies and The Magus lurk at the roots of this novel, but Garland reshapes them with panache into something terrifyingly new (Mail on Sunday)
A mesmerising, knuckle-clenching read (Maxim)
Winningly compulsive, brilliantly conceived (Q)
Garland's prose is stunningly lucid. Addictive and compelling (Spectator)
A highly confident debut...this incisive novel may well come to be regarded as a defining text in the history of imaginative travel writing (Daily Telegraph)
Alex Garland is writing a brand new kind of adventure novel. His style is dangerously simple yet altogether captivating (Douglas Rushkoff)
An exceptional first novel...An action novel that provokes subtle responses, The Beach takes in ideas about man's inevitable progress from noble savage to social breakdown (and) the related tradition of nature versus art (The Times Literary Supplement)
Garland has written a powerful and frighteningly believable novel (Company)
Precise and speedy prose, with good old-fashioned romantic adventure spiced up with deadpan authorial irony (Guardian)
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- PublisherPenguin
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0141801794
- ISBN 13 9780141801797
- BindingAudio CD
- Number of pages4
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Book Description Gut/Very good: Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit wenigen Gebrauchsspuren an Einband, Schutzumschlag oder Seiten. / Describes a book or dust jacket that does show some signs of wear on either the binding, dust jacket or pages. Seller Inventory # M00141801794-V
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The Beach
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Penguin Books Ltd, United Kingdom, London
(2000)
ISBN 10: 0141801794
ISBN 13: 9780141801797
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. On Richard's first night in Bangkok, a fellow traveller slits his wrists, leaving Richard a map to the Beach, where white sands circle a lagoon hidden from the sea, coral gardens and freshwater falls are surrounded by jungle. Richard was looking for adventure, and now he has found it. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR006197125
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The Beach
Published by
Penguin Books Ltd, United Kingdom, London
(2000)
ISBN 10: 0141801794
ISBN 13: 9780141801797
Used
Paperback
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Fine. On Richard's first night in Bangkok, a fellow traveller slits his wrists, leaving Richard a map to the Beach, where white sands circle a lagoon hidden from the sea, coral gardens and freshwater falls are surrounded by jungle. Richard was looking for adventure, and now he has found it. Seller Inventory # GOR012945684
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