On rare occasions there comes along a profound original, an odd little book that appears out of nowhere, from the pen of some obscure storyteller, and once you have read it, you will never go completely back to where you were before.
Tom Neale's "An Island to Oneself" is such an odd little and profoundly original book. Trying to describe it to those who haven't read it can be difficult. It is not just a book about living on a desert island. Its essence is larger than that. It's a book about a passion for simplicity; it's about being alone and doing alone. It tells us that life is incomplete without dreams and risk. It teaches the important and hard to appreciate truths that the ocean is beautiful and violent, that soil is precious and that there is a use for a bicycle pump on a desert island. It's a book about how to dream and how we might live. It is a book that becomes a place.
You can read about Tom Neale on the internet. You can even read his book on the internet - click here (simply SIGN UP, LOG IN, and BORROW)
Ultimately, however, you will want to buy your own copy because it is the kind of book other people may hesitate to lend to you for fear they might miss its company.
