The Khao San Road, Bangkok - first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveler slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach." The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is a subject of legend among young travelers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumored, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden. Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck - the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man - and by his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.
- ISBN10 0140258418
- ISBN13 9780140258417
- Publish Date 26 June 1997 (first published 14 October 1996)
- Publish Status Unknown
- Out of Print 5 July 2007
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
- Pages 448
- Language English