The Beach

Fülszöveg

Think about a lagoon, hidden from the sea and passing boats by a high, curving wall of rock. Then imagine white sands and coral gardens never damaged by dynamite fishing or trawling nets. Freshwater falls scatter the island, surrounded by jungle - not the forests of Thailand, but jungle. Canopies three levels deep, plants untouched for a thousand years, strangely coloured birds and monkeys in trees. On the white sands, fishing in the coral gardens, a select community of travellers pass the months. They leave if they want to, they return, the beach never changes.
The Khao San Road, Bangkok - first stop on the backpacker trail and the gateway to paradise.
Late at night in a seedy Bangkok hotel, Richard, a young traveller, is drawn into a strange conversation with a fellow guest. Through a narrow strip of mosquito netting that separates their rooms he hears for the first time of a secret beach, hidden somewhere in the scattered islands of a Thai marine park, that is forbidden to... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Think about a lagoon, hidden from the sea and passing boats by a high, curving wall of rock. Then imagine white sands and coral gardens never damaged by dynamite fishing or trawling nets. Freshwater falls scatter the island, surrounded by jungle - not the forests of Thailand, but jungle. Canopies three levels deep, plants untouched for a thousand years, strangely coloured birds and monkeys in trees. On the white sands, fishing in the coral gardens, a select community of travellers pass the months. They leave if they want to, they return, the beach never changes.
The Khao San Road, Bangkok - first stop on the backpacker trail and the gateway to paradise.
Late at night in a seedy Bangkok hotel, Richard, a young traveller, is drawn into a strange conversation with a fellow guest. Through a narrow strip of mosquito netting that separates their rooms he hears for the first time of a secret beach, hidden somewhere in the scattered islands of a Thai marine park, that is forbidden to tourists. The next morning Richard finds a map pinned to his door, and the man who put it there has slashed his wrists.
Rumours of an island Garden of Eden known only as 'the beach' have spread across South-East Asia. And for Richard the glamour of Vietnam war movies makes a trek into an unknown Thai hinterland irresistible. He joins together with a young French couple staying in the same seedy hotel and sets off on a perilous journey in search of Shangri-La.
And they find it. White sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for thousands of years, strangely coloured birds and monkeys in trees. And there on the beach a select community of travellers live in what appears to be communal innocence and bliss. But underlying tensions soon begin to emerge as external forces start to close in, cracking the shimmering surface to reveal the nightmares beneath.
The Beach is a spell-binding story combining contemporary resonance with the seductiveness of legend - a hallucinogenic novel that tells of travellers' dreams and destructiveness in an unforgettable story of innocence and horror. Vissza