The dystopian classic - which has sold over 25 million copies - introduced by Stephen King. When a group of schoolboys are stranded on a desert island, what could go wrong?
ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'
'The first book with hands - strong ones that reached out of the pages and seized me by the throat. It said to me, 'This is not just entertainment; it's life or death.' ... I've been thinking about it ever since, for fifty years and more.' Stephen King
'One of my favorite books - I read it every couple of years.' Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games
INTRODUCED BY STEPHEN KING
'There aren't any grown-ups anywhere.'
A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they explore the dazzling beaches, gorging fruit, seeking shelter, and ripping off their uniforms to swim in the lagoon. At night, in the darkness of the jungle, they are haunted by nightmares of a primitive beast. Orphaned by society, they must forge their own; but it isn't long before their innocent games devolve into something far more dangerous . . .
'Thrills me with all the power a fiction can have ... Exemplary.' Ian McEwan
'An existential fable backlit with death's incandescent glare.' Ben Okri
'Violently real ... An apocalyptic novelist [who writes with] humanist rage and defiance.' Marlon James
'Beautifully written, tragic and provocative.' E. M. Forster
'A fragment of nightmare.' New Statesman
'A post-apocalyptic, dystopian survivor-fantasy ... [A novel] for all time ... A cult classic.' Guardian
'Stands out mightily in my memory ... Such a strong statement about the human heart.' Patricia Cornwell
'Terrifying and haunting.' Kingsley Amis
What readers are saying:
'Every real human being should read this ... This is what we are.'
'It's brilliant, it's captivating, it's thought provoking and brutal and for some, its truly terrifying.'
'It can be read and re-read many times, and every time something new will appear.'
'There is a reason why this is studied at school ... Excellent read.'
'This is one of the few books I've read that I keep on my Kindle to read again.'
'I revisit this every few years and it's always fresh and impressive ... One of the best books I've ever read.'
William Golding (1911 - 1993) was born in Cornwall and educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. Before becoming a writer, he was an actor, small-boat sailor, musician and schoolteacher. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and took part in the D-Day operation and liberation of Holland. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was turned down by several publishers but rescued from the 'reject pile' at Faber and published in 1954. It became a modern classic selling millions of copies, translated into 44 languages and made into a film by Peter Brook in 1963. Golding wrote eleven other novels, a play and two essay collections. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988 and died in 1993. www.william-golding.co.uk
STEPHEN KING is the author of more than seventy books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His titles include Firestarter, Misery and The Talisman (co-written with Peter Straub).
Many of his titles are the basis for major motion pictures including IT, Stand By Me (adapted from The Body) and The Shawshank Redemption, which is IMDb's top-rated movie of all time.
King is the recipient of The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence 2022, the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding
William Golding