For some reason a tiny island community living on the Blasket Islands off Ireland’s SW coast produced three of the major works written in the Irish language in the 20th century. They are all available in translation.
The Islandman – Tomás Ó Criomhthain
Twenty Years a Growing – Maurice O’Sullivan
Péig – Péig Sayers
elizabeth-cooper on
Mutiny on the Bounty is based on a true story.
martin__writes on
Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being is set on a Canadian island after a Japanese’s girl’s diary washes ashore — not purely nonfiction but inspired by the real 2011 Tokyo tsunami.
And Lauren Groff’s book Arcadia is a sort of Jungle Book tale of a nebulously disabled kid raised in an idyllic-but-also-terrible commune. Again, fiction, but gets at the insularity you want.
If you’re willing to get a little more fantastical and dreamlike, the best book on total isolation I’ve ever read is Sussanah Clarke’s Piranesi.
Natasharoxy on
It’s fiction but I really enjoyed The Colony by Audrey Magee.
GreendaleDean on
This is about one person, not a community so it may not interest you. But I really enjoyed *The Stranger In The Woods* by Michael Finkel. It’s a non-fiction book about the longest known modern hermit in the United States who lived for 27 years in the Maine woods.
Gusenica_koja_pushi on
Sex lives of cannibals, Maarten Troost. Set in Kiribati, non fiction.
Surviving paradise, Peter Rudiak Gould, set in isolated island with ~500 inhabitants, also non fiction
6 Comments
For some reason a tiny island community living on the Blasket Islands off Ireland’s SW coast produced three of the major works written in the Irish language in the 20th century. They are all available in translation.
The Islandman – Tomás Ó Criomhthain
Twenty Years a Growing – Maurice O’Sullivan
Péig – Péig Sayers
Mutiny on the Bounty is based on a true story.
Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being is set on a Canadian island after a Japanese’s girl’s diary washes ashore — not purely nonfiction but inspired by the real 2011 Tokyo tsunami.
And Lauren Groff’s book Arcadia is a sort of Jungle Book tale of a nebulously disabled kid raised in an idyllic-but-also-terrible commune. Again, fiction, but gets at the insularity you want.
If you’re willing to get a little more fantastical and dreamlike, the best book on total isolation I’ve ever read is Sussanah Clarke’s Piranesi.
It’s fiction but I really enjoyed The Colony by Audrey Magee.
This is about one person, not a community so it may not interest you. But I really enjoyed *The Stranger In The Woods* by Michael Finkel. It’s a non-fiction book about the longest known modern hermit in the United States who lived for 27 years in the Maine woods.
Sex lives of cannibals, Maarten Troost. Set in Kiribati, non fiction.
Surviving paradise, Peter Rudiak Gould, set in isolated island with ~500 inhabitants, also non fiction