num_pages: 176
description: On a day in April, just after three o'clock in the afternoon, Robert Maitland's car crashes over the concrete parapet of a high-speed highway onto the island below, where he is injured and, finally, trapped. What begins as an almost ludicrous predicament in Concrete Island soon turns into horror as Maitland--a wickedly modern Robinson Crusoe--realizes that, despite evidence of other inhabitants, this doomed terrain has become a mirror of his own mind. Seeking the dark outer rim of the everyday, Ballard weaves private catastrophe into an intensely specular allegory.Author Biography: J. G. Ballard is the author of numerous books, including Empire of the Sun, the underground classic Crash, and The Kindness of Women. He is revered as one of the most important writers of fiction to address the consequences of twentieth-century technology. His latest book is Super-Cannes. He lives in England.
language: English
title: Concrete Island
titlecomplete: Concrete Island
characters: Robert Maitland
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Thriller, British Literature, Horror, Literature, Novels, Contemporary, 20th Century, Dystopia
ratings_count: 8986
places: London, England
publisher: Triad/Panther Books