Why this book: I have always been drawn to survival stories by and about people who find themselves in the most challenging of circumstances and must rely on their wits, creativity, mental and  physical toughness to survive. This one popped up on one of my Amazon searches and I jumped on it.

Summary in 4 sentences: In the 1860s, unbeknownst to each other, two different groups of men are shipwrecked at the same time on opposite ends of Auckland Island, an uninhabited island south of New Zealand and just above the Antarctic circle.  The two groups have no contact with each other, and both have a really tough time of it, as the terrain and weather were extremely inhospitable, and there were few prospects for rescue or long term survival. This book tells their stories in parallel: One group had a good leader and after 16 harrowing, touch-and-go months, all survived, due to working well together and some pretty ingenious steps they took to survive.  The other group had a poor leader and poor teamwork, and when rescued after about a year, only 3 out of 19 had survived. .

My Impressions:  Great story of survival – reminiscent of Shackleton’s Endurance, even a bit of Louis Zamparini’s Unbroken, and other great survival stories I’ve read.  Several of those who survived wrote memoirs afterward, which the author painstakingly reviewed, deconflicted and gave us a great account of how much these men suffered, how they struggled to keep hope alive, and how their suffering fostered a genius for developing options to keep themselves alive just a bit longer.

As noted in the summary above, leadership and teamwork were key.  In the one group of five men, all survived.  Similar to Shackleton’s Endurance story, the last desperate option was to modify their small boat and for a few of the men to make a several hundred mile ocean crossing to get to civilization (New Zealand) and muster a rescue for those left behind. As in Shackleton’s case, the small boat journey was through some of the most hazardous seas in the world had only a small chance for success, but they made it to civilization, exhausted and starving and near death.  When they did arrive, the captain struggled to find someone willing to undertake the return to Auckland Island to rescue the other two men, but he did.

The focus of the story was on these five survivors- since both the captain and first mate kept journals which eventually became widely read books about their story. The group at the other end of the island does not get as much attention, because those who survived did not write much.  There was clearly some shame on the part of the two officers who had so poorly led their team and survived,  The junior man, a seaman who was indeed the strongest and most resilient, innovative, and determined of the three, didn’t write his memoirs until nearly 60 years after the event.

In Island of the Lost, the author offers us interesting information about Auckland Island  –  it’s history, about unsuccessful efforts to colonize the island before and after the event, about the ecology, the flora and fauna of the island, its terrain and geography and what has happened to Auckland Island in the 150 years since the shipwrecks described in the book.  I felt this additional background added a lot to the book.    At the book’s conclusion, she shares with us what eventually happened to each of the survivors, as well as a fascinating account of her research into this incident, and her challenges in putting together a coherent story from a number of different accounts.

For survival enthusiasts like me, this is a fascinating and quick read. I read it in a few days and thoroughly enjoyed it.