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The Beach

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The Beach

Written by: Alex Garland
Narrated by: Michael Page
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About this listen

The irresistible novel that was adapted into a major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

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 by Alex Garland—both a national bestseller and his debut—is a highly accomplished and suspenseful novel that fixates on 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.

©2005 Alex Garland (P)2022 Penguin Audio
Mystery Science Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Dystopian Fiction Adventure Exciting

What the critics say

Betty Trask Prize & Award (UK), Winner

“What makes The Beach a truly awesome piece of work is Garland’s understated, assured depiction of the perils of pop."—The Village Voice

The Beach will astonish readers... Not since reading Donna Tartt’s The Secret History has this reader been so impressed and taken with a first novel.”—USA Today

"A book that moves with the kind of speed and grace many older writers can only day-dream about. The Beach is ambitious, propulsive fiction."—The Washington Post

All stars
Most relevant
A friend who is an avid reader recommended this book after I finished Lonesome dove and wanted something similarly epic. Of course I knew this was a 90s movie and heard it was “bad/weird” so the book recommendation was a surprise. I trusted her taste and was very glad I did. It’s a good summer/holiday read for those who also like psychological thrillers. Picturesque and disturbing. You can get away from it all, but when you’re away you’re still stuck with yourself

They made a movie?

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The story is much better than in the film and is helped by a terrific performance by the reader. A truly great travel book.

Far better than the film

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