Island of the Lost

Really recommend this book, it is so well written and interesting. An incredible story and the parallels between the two groups is just fascinating. She is such a good author and I’m now looking for other books by her. I had never heard of this story of survival and yet it is such an incredible one, hopefully this superb book will help to ensure more hear of it. Wonderful book!

An excellent book of a real life adventure and survival in a harsh environment.

Became a big fan of Joan Druett with this book! The smooth narration, the incredible attention to details and the events of 1800s themselves blend to form a fantastic read. The characters portrayal, especially that of Captain Musgrave and Fracois Raynard is compelling - you feel so much for both these men towards the end of the book. All in all, an inspiring story of survival and grit. Highly recommend it.

I didn't buy this book expecting to learn anything more than about shipwrecks and survival, but there are so many other intriguing pieces to it, like the sub-antarctic sealing industry, that there is no question that I will be expanding my reading to learn more about this time period. The book's synopsis is a bit misleading; yes, there were two shipwrecks on the island that overlapped much of the same time period, but the focus is on the wreck of the Grafton and its small crew. There are also very serious environmental and seasonal factors (timing) that contributed to the shipwrecks survivors; differences in leadership played a part of how well each group succeeded, but was not the only defining factor in my opinion. As well, and something that the pulled the book together for me, each wreck had at least one individual who had a level of resourcefulness that contributed greatly to each groups survival. The forge building or the coracle building as examples! The author's ability to meld two separate incidents and her writing style that is highly engaging and to the point, made for a relatively quick read and I look forward to reading more of her work on naval history. Highly recommend this book if this topic or region of the world is of interest. However, would caution that there is a great deal of emphasis on killing seals, especially pups, as a main food source and this may be a big turn off to some readers. As the author notes in the afterword, one group of survivors were mentally prepared to kill seals. This was the one area of the book that I was not mentally prepared for myself!

História verídica imperdível! Incrível como foi a boa liderança que causou a sobrevivência deles!