Survival Stories: Fiction

Get lost and found with these novels.

Updated June 4, 2023
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The stranger in the lifeboat : a novel
Albom, Mitch
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Bestseller What would happen if we called on God for help and God actually appeared? In Mitch Albom's profound new novel of hope and faith, a group of shipwrecked passengers pull a strange man from the sea. He claims to be "the Lord." And he says he can only save them if...
Small game : a novel
Braverman, Blair
Paper Book
A gripping debut novel about a survival reality show gone wrong that leaves a group of strangers stranded in the northern wilds  Four strangers and six weeks: this is all that separates Mara from one life-changing payday. She was surprised when reality TV producers came knocking at...
Devolution : a firsthand account of the Rainier Sasquatch massacre
Brooks, Max.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The #1 New York Times bestselling author of World War Z is back with "the Bigfoot thriller you didn't know you needed in your life, and one of the greatest horror novels I've ever read" (Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and ...
World war Z : an oral history of the zombie war.
Brooks, Max
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Prepare to be entranced by this addictively readable oral history of the great war between humans and zombies."--Entertainment Weekly   We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by...
A beginning at the end. [online electronic audiobook]
Chen, Mike.
Ebook
The new wilderness : a novel
Cook, Diane
Paper Book
A Washington Post, NPR, and Buzzfeed Best Book of the Year * Shortlisted for the Booker Prize "More than timely, the novel feels timeless, solid, like a forgotten classic recently resurfaced -- a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. But at its core, The New Wilderness is really...
Robinson Crusoe
Defoe, Daniel
Paper Book
Daniel Defoe relates the tale of an English sailor marooned on a desert island for nearly three decades. An ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances, Robinson Crusoe wrestles with fate and the nature of God. This edition features maps.
Manhunt
Felker-Martin, Gretchen
Paper Book
"By far the best book I've read this year." --Roxane Gay #1 Best Book of 2022 (Vulture) * A Best Horror Novel of All Time (Cosmopolitan) * One of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 (Esquire, Library Journal, Paste, and CrimeReads...
Into the jungle.
Ferencik, Erica
Paper Book
In this "hypnotic, violent, unsparing" (A.J. Banner, USA TODAY bestselling author) thriller from the author of the "haunting, twisting thrill ride" (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) The River at Night, a young woman leaves behind everything she knows to take...
Lord of the flies.
Golding, William, 1911-1993.
Paper Book
A plane crashes on an uninhabited island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. In...
Comfort & joy.
Hannah, Kristin.
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah is beloved by readers around the world for her unique blend of powerful emotion and exquisite storytelling. In Comfort & Joy, she offers a modern-day fairy tale--the story of a woman who gets a miraculous chance at happiness. ...
The stand : the complete & uncut edition
King, Stephen
Paper Book
#1 BESTSELLER * NOW A PARAMOUNT+ LIMITED SERIES * Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting--and eerily plausible--as when it was first published. One of The...
The road
McCarthy, Cormac
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately,...
Dear Edward : a novel
Napolitano, Ann
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY * "Make sure you have tissues handy when you read [this] sure-footed tearjerker" (NPR) about a young boy who must learn to go on after surviving tragedy, from the author of the Oprah's...
Fierce kingdom.
Phillips, Gin.
Paper Book
An electrifying literary thriller introduces an unforgettable mother and son, whose simple trip to the zoo one afternoon is transformed into three hours of terror and survival after gunshots ring out. What would you do to protect the ones you love? After school on a late October...
Year one
Roberts, Nora
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER (December 2017) A stunning new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts--Year One is an epic of hope and horror, chaos and magick, and a journey that will unite a desperate group of people to fight the...
The lifeboat : a novel
Rogan, Charlotte.
Paper Book
The sinking of an ocean liner leaves a newly married woman battling for survival in this powerful debut novel. Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life. In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying her and...
The terror : a novel
Simmons, Dan.
Paper Book
The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in...
Sorrowland
Solomon, Rivers
Paper Book
A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2021 A New York Times Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2021 The Stonewall Book Award winner of 2022 Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR, The New York Public Library, Publishers Weekly<...
The mysterious island.
Verne, Jules, 1828-1905
Paper Book
A beautiful unabridged version translated by Stephen White with 67 original illustrations by N. C. Wyeth. Published in French as L' le Myst rieuse in 1874, this novel is a sequel to Verne's earlier Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. It contains three...
The Martian.
Weir, Andy
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Brilliant . . . a celebration of human ingenuity [and] the purest example of real-science sci-fi for many years . . . utterly compelling."--The Wall Street Journal The inspiration for the major motion picture ...
The war of the worlds. [online electronic book]
Wells, H. G. 1866-1946
Ebook
For more than one hundred years H. G. Wells' classic science fiction tale of the Martian invasion of Earth has enthralled readers with a combination of imagination and incisive commentary on the imbalance of power that continues to be relevant today. No one would have believed...
The shepherd's hut.
Winton, Tim
Paper Book
Master storyteller Tim Winton delivers a tender and raw meditation on masculinity and power, violence and self-restraint, and on forgiveness and kindness as the ultimate acts of love.Jaxie dreads going home. His mother's dead, the old man beats him without mercy, and he doesn't know how much...
The end of October
Wright, Lawrence
Paper Book
"An eerily prescient novel about a devastating virus that begins in Asia before going global . . . A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller." --New York Post   "Featuring accounts of past plagues and pandemics, descriptions of pathogens and...

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