Concrete Island

A chilling novel about our modern world, from the author of Empire of the Sun and Crash.

An architect is driving home from his London offices when a blow-out sends his speeding Jaguar hurtling out of control and crashing through the motorway barrier. When he tries to climb the embankment or flag-down a passing car for help it proves impossible – and he finds himself marooned on the concrete island. In this twisted version of Robinson Crusoe, our hero must learn to survive – using only what he can find in his crashed car.

Concrete Island provides an unnerving study of our modern lives and world. With his alienating, ‘Ballardian’ view of normal events, this is a unique novel from one of our finest writers.

Reviews

'This allegory of modern life is both compelling and profound' Daily Telegraph

'Ballard's violent exact prose carries you along irresistibly. You believe him, you accept his vision, and it is a fearful one' Sunday Telegraph

'Ballard writes with taut and precise economy, and the moral of his brilliantly original fable is plain: the interstices of our concrete jungle are filled with neglected people, and one day those people could be ourselves' Sunday Times

About the author

J.G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, his family returned to England in 1946. His 1984 bestseller Empire of the Sun won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His most recent novel is Kingdom Come, published in 2006, his autobiography Miracles of Life was published in 2008 to much acclaim. J.G. Ballard died in 2009.