The Beach - Alex Garland

Alex Garland

Category: Suspense

Narrator: Michael Page

Tags: Suspense, Novel, Thriller, Adults

The Khao San Road, Bangkokfirst stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richards 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. Duckthe name by which the Thai police have identified the dead manand 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 Richar