Cast Away

From the author of Saltblood (winner of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize) comes the true-life story of Alexander Selkirk, a sweeping tale of isolation and tenacity, asking: Who is a man, when everything is stripped away?

A revelatory meditation on humanity . . . If you’re wondering how any author could wring a novel of more than 300 pages out of such scanty components, the answer is soon clear: compelling characterisation. De Tores’s Selkirk is an adorably reprobate antihero whose company never palls as we follow him through his long days spent hunting and skinning goats, smoking, scavenging and – understandably – engaged in furious bouts of onanism . . . A poignant, sophisticated portrait of a man far more modern and interesting – at least in De Tores’s telling – than the historical record might let on

De Tores builds Selkirk’s world with detail and patience – it’s an impressive imaginative feat

Forget Robinson Crusoe , this witty new retelling is undeniably brilliant . . . The result is such agile, witty, sophisticated entertainment . . . Pathos, elegance and paciness are expertly combined , drawing the reader in with gallows humour . By the time the trap door of de Tores' novel swings open, its brilliance seems undeniable

What I imagine must have been lengthy and meticulous research has transformed on the page into a vivid, utterly convincing and immersive read . . . Beautiful, fascinating, heartbreaking, philosophically engaging – and often very funny . A necessary and delightful corrective to the Crusoe mythology

What makes Cast Away exceptional is the way de Tores threads Selkirk’s metaphysical struggles through the story, and writes about them with poetry, whimsy and humour . De Tores asks: what is the nature of a human, when everything extraneous has gone? I read Cast Away over one weekend and could not put it down. I adored it

Delivers rich detail . . . with a concrete physical immediacy that is absolutely persuasive

A brilliant story that drew me in from the first line . . . de Tores weaves a tale of survival and philosophical reflections about what it means to be human

Francesca de Tores is a novelist and poet. She is the author of six novels, published in more than 20 languages. Her first historical novel, Saltblood , was awarded the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. In addition to a collection of poems, her poetry is widely published in journals and anthologies. She grew up in Lutruwita/Tasmania and, after fifteen years in England, is now living in Naarm/Melbourne.