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The Beach

By Alex Garlad

(129)

| Hardcover | 9781573220484

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Book Description

The Khao San Road, Bangkok--first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveler slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach."

The Beach, aContinue

The Khao San Road, Bangkok--first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveler slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach."

The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is the subject of a legend among young travelers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumored, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden.

Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck--the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man--and his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.

Spellbinding and hallucinogenic, The Beach is a look at a generation in their twenties, who, burdened with the legacy of the preceding generation and saturated by popular culture, long for an unruined landscape, but find it difficult to experience the world firsthand.

5 Reviews

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  • Fascinating and extremely disturbing. A very well-written novel, amazing for a first-timer!

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    sid_rw said on Mar 22, 2010 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

  • i read it ages before watching the movie. <br />i really liked it, there's a thrill in it that never fades, but always grows. i could not stop reading it! and, by the way, i think the movie is very good, as well :D

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    Chiara L'Onironauta said on Sep 2, 2009 | Add your feedback

  • Fascinating story

    Liked the book. Fascinated writing with enough tension to keep you reading on and on.

    It's a while ago when I read this one, but still I know the redline of the story. I watched the movie after reading the book but was dissapointed by the number of missing details described in the book.

    ... (continue)

    Liked the book. Fascinated writing with enough tension to keep you reading on and on.

    It's a while ago when I read this one, but still I know the redline of the story. I watched the movie after reading the book but was dissapointed by the number of missing details described in the book.

    I would recommend this book to all travelers and backpackers.

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    Ozute said on Sep 3, 2006 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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