With the humor, irony, and veteran story-telling that have made him one of America's most respected novelists, Thomas Berger has written a modern-day Robinson Crusoe.

In his latest work, Thomas Berger takes us on an odyssey in the wilderness that becomes a mythic adventure. Robert Crews, middle-aged, alcoholic, his life in shambles, joins three pals on a fishing expedition that meets with catastrophe. The plane that was to take them to a northern fishing lodge crashes. Robert Crews is the sole survivor. In a wilderness for which he has no preparation, Crews must become Crusoe.

Forced into sobriety, he must confront not only an alien environment, but all the specters of his past: his broken marriages, his aimlessness, his profound loneliness, his failed existence. As he taps into resources he didn't know he had, Crews gradually becomes, for the first time, committed to his survival - and, eventually, to the survival of his companion, Friday. The accidental encounter with Friday, who is on the run from her violent husband, elicits Crews's feelings of protectiveness and compassion, and also love.

Through her, Crews discovers his competence and manhood. This is a tale of more than survival - it is about transformation, commitment, and the possibility of redemption.