The release date for the English version of 'The Beach' by
Alex Garland is Feb 1998. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The captivating book that became a blockbuster film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The first destination for the throngs of young, destitute Westerners visiting Southeast Asia is Bangkok's Khao San Road. A fellow traveler slits his wrists on Richard's first night there at an inexpensive guest home, leaving Richard with a painstakingly drawn map leading to "the Beach."
Richard discovers that The Beach is the stuff of mythology among youthful travelers in Asia: a lagoon tucked away from the ocean, replete with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls encircled by forest, and vegetation unspoiled for millennia. Rumor has it that there, in a communal Eden, a carefully chosen international few have made their home.
Accompanied by a youthful French couple and plagued by visions of the deceased man known only by his nickname, "Mr. Duck," which the Thai police have used to identify him, Richard embarks on a journey to a remote island inside an archipelago that is off-limits to visitors. When they find the Beach, it is just as beautiful and dreamy as everyone says it would be. But as time passes, it becomes evident that there are unsettling—even lethal—undercurrents to what Richard refers to as "beach culture."
The Beach, a highly accomplished and suspenseful novel by Alex Garland, is both a national bestseller and his debut. It is captivating and hallucinogenic, and it centers on a generation of twentysomethings who, overwhelmed by popular culture and the legacy of their parents, yearn for an untouched landscape but find it difficult to travel and experience life firsthand.