Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Island of the Lost

Island of the Lost by Joan Druett 2007

How well could you survive being shipwrecked on a deserted island? New Zealand maritime historian and writer Joan Druet re-creates not one, but 2 shipwrecks on the same island. In 1864, 2 sailing ships were wrecked by storms on the same island, 300 miles south of New Zealand. The survivors were separated by 20 miles of inhospitable terrain, so they were unaware of each other. Using the ship's logs, newspaper accounts from the time and the sailors' own diaries and memoirs, Druett has created a surprisingly gripping tale that will leave readers amazed at the resourcefulness of one crew and the total ineptitude of the other. She illustrates how each group coped with the hostile conditions and why their respective strategies succeeded or failed by allowing the details of each story to drive the narrative. This makes for an engrossing and spellbinding story. Well-researched and well-written, the author seamlessly weaves their respective stories together, keeping the reader compulsively turning the pages of this engrossing maritime survival saga.