One novel on the list:Lord of the FliesRead about the other books on Fisher's list.
by William Golding
This is a great story about a group of boys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. They descend into madness and end up killing two of their companions, Piggy and Simon. I reread this book recently and found it interesting that Golding seems to imply that savagery is more primal and fundamental to the human psyche than civilization. That idea is fascinating—and so are the questions it raises: If people were left to their own devices, would savagery ensue or would people live by the rules and be nice? Which is the most powerful impulse within us?
Lord of the Flies is on AbeBooks' list of 20 books of shattered childhoods and is one of the top ten works of literature according to Stephen King. It appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best pairs of glasses in literature and ten of the best horrid children in literature, and William Skidelsky's list of ten of the best accounts of being marooned in literature.
--Marshal Zeringue
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