Desert Island Books

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Shocking and controversial when it was first published, The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck's Pultizer Prize-winning epic of the Joad family, forced to travel west from Dust Bowl era Oklahoma in search of the promised land of California. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and powerlessness.

Sean says: "Wonderful book - read as a teenager  depicting a bleak period during the American depression. Great character depictions. A tragic and melancholy tale."

The Star Rover - Jack London

Jack London was born into abject poverty in the slums of San Francisco during the winter of 1876. His writing was to reflect the hard life he lived, perpetually chronicling men facing the wild as he did throughout his life. After his eighth grade year, poverty forced London to leave school. This did not stop him, as he furthered his literary knowledge and skill at the Oakland Public Library, borrowing books and educating himself. London faced great obstacles, even landing himself in a Niagara Falls prison as a vagrant just shortly after winning a prize from a newspaper for his piece on a Typhoon near Japan. Once he was released, London decided to go back to high school, finishing his education in just a year and got into the University of California. He left after only one semester and began his prolific writing career. "The Star Rover", also published as "The Jacket" tells a tale of torture at San Quentin State Prison, where a man is left no choice but to resort to mental tactics to endure physical pain.

Sean says: "A favourite author. A powerful imaginative story of reincarnation, of science fiction and of mans brutality and cruelty. Love it."

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoyevsky's great novel of damnation and redemption evokes a world where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil, blur. It tells the story of Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, who wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be beyond conventional moral laws. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck.

Sean says: "A true Classic which everybody with an interest in literature/ human psyche should read. Harrowing and thought provoking- amazing book."

A prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

Summer, 1953. In the small town of Gravesend, New Hampshire, eleven-year-old John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany are playing in a Little League baseball game. When Owen hits a foul ball which kills John's mother, their lives are changed in an instant.

It is dismissed as a tragic accident but Owen disagrees. He believes that he is God's instrument, put on Earth for a higher purpose. And as the boys come into adulthood to the background of the Vietnam War, a series of remarkable events show that perhaps Owen's divine plan was not imagined after all.

Sean says: "Brilliant, beautifully written, wonderful characters. A tragic accident brings into question a divine plan. It's funny with an emotional ending. Lovely book."

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell

 

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a classic representation of the impoverished and politically powerless underclass of British society in Edwardian England, ruthlessly exploited by the institutionalized corruption of their employers and the civic and religious authorities. Epic in scale, the novel charts the ruinous effects of the laissez-faire mercantilist ethics on the men, women, and children of the working classes, and through its emblematic characters, argues for a socialist politics as the only hope for a civilized and humane life for all.

Sean says: "Story of the struggle between the underprivileged and their oppressors. Told at the turn of the century, it centres on a group of house painters and their struggles with their bosses through redundancies, starvation and family tragedies. Powerful emotive socialist book."

The Bible

 

There are more than 400 million Bibles in print.

Sean says: "Nothing to add just a righteous life followed."

 

Record:

"‘Living on an Island’  by Status Quo will give me perspective."

Luxury Item:

"A mirror in case someone arrives, want to look good."