Remote Isn’t Just What Turns On Your TV

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The Isle of Lewis (© Manel Vinuesa).

Novels with remote settings can be highly populated with elements fascinating to readers. Challenging weather. Lonely characters. Intense interactions between a relatively small number of people. Heightened danger because of the remoteness. And more.

The Blackhouse and its first sequel The Lewis Man, two riveting Peter May novels I read this month, mostly unfold on the isolated Isle of Lewis off Scotland. This setting gives the books lots of atmosphere amid murders and interesting (at times pathological) relationships between various three-dimensional characters.

I also recently read Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier, who uses a remote setting as a backdrop to an intriguing love affair between a dissatisfied upper-class woman and a charismatic pirate.

Pirates have ships, of course, and many novels with remote settings unfold on boats, islands, or other isolated places near water. Among the examples I’ve read are Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (obviously), Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (which chronicles a surreal journey to the South Pole), Herman Melville’s Typee (whose escapee sailor protagonist enjoys Polynesian island life), and Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo (a key part of which is set on a prison island off Marseille).

Also: Aldous Huxley’s Island (as utopian as that author’s Brave New World is dystopian), Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (murders on an island), Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (boy and tiger overboard), Martin Cruz Smith’s Polar Star (the ship-set first sequel to Gorky Park), M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans (about the troubled life of a married couple on an island off Australia), and Peter Hoeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow (partly set on an island off Greenland).

Other remote locales in fiction can be mostly on land — including Canada’s Yukon wilderness in Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, the Alaskan wilderness in Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, the New York State wilderness in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer, the Siberian wilderness in Louis L’Amour’s Last of the Breed, and the African desert in J.M.G. Le Clezio’s Desert and Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky.

There’s also the bleak end-of-the-world landscape in the concluding pages of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, and of course lonely settings in many sci-fi novels — such as Andy Weir’s The Martian and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Your thoughts on this topic (which I also covered, in a partly different way, seven years ago) — including your favorite fiction with remote locales?

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82 thoughts on “Remote Isn’t Just What Turns On Your TV”

    • Thank you, Robbie, for the great mentions! Of those you named, I’ve read “Jane Eyre” (my favorite novel) and “The Thorn Birds” (which is excellent). Another part-remote Colleen McCullough novel, which I read after you recommended it, is the very compelling “Morgan’s Run.”

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  3. Another thoughts, Dave, a book which I meant to mention in my first comment, but forgot; senile decay is setting in, unfortunately. ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, where Hemingway’s Santiago spends 84 days out at sea trying for a catch, then losing the marlin he fights so hard for to sharks. Isolated doesn’t cover it … 😦

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  4. Anne of Green Gables (L.L.Montgomery) takes place in a rural farming community in Avonlea. Is this remote enough? The era makes it remote, as well.

    How about Heart of Darkness? (Joseph Conrad) It feels remote, and is dangerous.

    It’s a bit late, and I can’t come up with anything clever? .

    Have fun reading, Dave!

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    • Thank you, Resa, for those two great mentions! A rural farming community sounds isolated to me! As for “Heart of Darkness,” it of course inspired “Apocalypse Now” — which was successful enough at the box office for film-goers not to feel lonely in movie theaters. 🙂

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  5. My first thought on a comparative book was Gretel Ehrlich’s “The Solace of Open Spaces,” but (buzzer sound) it’s not fiction. It’s set in the American West. My next thought was “Eye of the Wolf,” which is fiction and is set on the remote Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. I happen to know the author of that one. 🙂

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  6. Hi Dave, a couple of thoughts about remoteness. First off, that rather irritating book called The Lord of the Flies by William Golding – I was also at high school when I had to read it, but why I wonder? But never mind.

    I quite liked The Beach by Alex Garland, and I read it before I watch the movie. I liked a lot the one called The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, and she got her Pulitzer prize too. A particularly long book, The Stand by Stephen King (the complete and uncut version), was pretty good, there were not many people left since this was a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel.

    Finally, this is a rather good novel: Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes. I had been reading this as one of my good friends went there for a holiday… wish I’ve been there as well.

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    • Thank you, Chris! I agree that while “Lord of the Flies” is a classic and says a lot about humankind, it IS irritating. Not a novel I ever had the desire to reread.

      I appreciate your various other mentions: two of which (“The Shipping News” and “The Stand”) I’ve read. Yes, when the apocalypse happens, things get lonely for the survivors. Also the case in Mary Shelley’s “The Last Man,” Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” etc.

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  8. Hi Dave!

    Another interesting angle when thinking about location/settings in literature. Remote locations?!! I haven’t thought of it like that before now!

    A remote location for me, immediately evokes a sense of atmosphere and possibly suspense!

    ‘The Call of the Wild’ has been on my TBR list for some time.

    Thanks Dave for the fascinating post!

    Sharon 🙂

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  9. I’ve never been to the Isle of Lewis, Dave, although have been to Islay, where my husband’s family lived. Isolation is an intriguing theme in books, especially when it affects the characters on a psychological level. I guess The Shining springs to mind. Pirate ships are an interesting setting, too! 🌸

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    • Thank you, Ada! Exciting that you’ve visited Islay, and have a family connection there! Yes, isolation can affect characters psychologically, which has major plot potential. And “The Shining” is a great example of a novel with a remote setting!

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  10. First of all I would like to say that I love your little village here with thatched roofs along the sea, where people may have different problems from those in big cities. I would like to reread George Orwell’s “1984” and “Lord of the Flies” is one of the books which I still remember quite well for its tragedy! Many thanks, Dave.

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  11. Tove Jansson’s “The Summer Book” is set on an island. Other than that and books that have been already mentioned, I’m drawing a blank. But as always, so many good titles to add to the “to read” list in your post and in the comments.(K)

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    • Thank you, Kerfe! I appreciate the mention of “The Summer Book.” One day I need to read Tove Jansson! And, like you, I’m enjoying seeing the comments containing some of people’s novel favorites. 🙂

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  12. I thought of The Swiss Family Robinson and a more recent book, The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve, which is set on Smutty Nose Island off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I thought the novel was flawed, but it fits your theme!

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  13. Dark Matter: A Ghost Story by Michelle Paver fits the “remote” category here. I just looked at my review of it on Goodreads and found this: “What makes it [the book] work are the utter darkness of the Arctic night in a remote place, the main character’s solitude, and wondering what terrible event brought about the haunting.”

    It’s a nice shivery read!

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  14. Novels set in remote settings can be quite haunting. The first one that came to mind, that you’ve mentioned, is Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone. Other stories that have stayed with me is Lord of the Flies by William Golding (we had to study it in high school), and The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex. Stonex’s novel is inspired by the real-life 1900 mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a remote tower on Flannan Isle in Scotland.

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  15. Another serendipitous moment, Dave!!! These past few weeks on my blog break, I read The Blackhouse and The Lewis Man, and I became completely immersed in the atmosphere of the Outer Hebrides. Peter May captures that feeling of remoteness so vividly that the landscape almost becomes another character in the story. The isolation intensifies everything. Memory, conflict, weather, grief, and human relationships.

    And I absolutely agree with you about Frenchman’s Creek. It remains one of my favourite novels, particularly because of the emotional complexity of the ending. The final decision feels deeply human precisely because it is not simple or romanticized. Du Maurier understood longing, freedom, responsibility, and the pull between different lives extraordinarily well.

    What strikes me reading your post is how remote settings often strip life down to essentials. Characters can no longer hide behind society, routine, or distraction. Nature, weather, silence, and isolation force confrontation, sometimes with danger, but often with themselves.

    I had to leave a quote: “The trouble with jealous revenge is that while you might inflict hurt on the other party, it does nothing to lessen the effect of the hurt you are feeling yourself. So everyone ends up unhappy.” Peter May, The Blackhouse

    P.S. I read that Peter May has written a fourth Fin Macleod novel set in the Outer Hebrides called The Black Loch. I understand it is a return to the world of the original Lewis Trilogy, set about ten years after The Chessmen. I have yet to read The Chessmen.

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Wow — that IS serendipitous! And I totally agree that “The Blackhouse” and “The Lewis Man” completely immerse a reader for all kinds of reasons, including the Isle of Lewis setting. I greatly look forward to reading “The Chessmen” and “The Black Loch.”

      I also agree that “Frenchman’s Creek” is a terrific novel, and that its excellent ending is very mature and realistic.

      All very well said by you! And by Peter May in the astute quote of his you cited.

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  17. Well, now! What a title for this post – love it! And you started off with a captivating offer…two books from Peter May set on the Isle of Lewis? I’m in! Discovering some of my mom’s forgotten Scottish roots has completely renewed my fascination with all things Scotland…especially remote and rugged landscapes!
    Truthfully, though, I love many of your suggestions. There’s something about a solitary setting…it becomes a character and a story driver in so many ways. Good stuff for me to remember! Thank you, Dave! 💝😊💝

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    • Thank you, Vicki! “…a solitary setting…becomes a character and a story driver in so many ways” — great, astute line!

      I can understand your fascination with a country where you have some ancestral roots. I’ve never been to Scotland myself, but it seems like a place that would be very worth visiting. Plus the various great Scottish authors, as well authors who have used that country as a setting — including Diana Gabaldon in the “Outlander” novels. I love her books.

      Peter May was an author unknown to me until blogger/author Laura Lyndhurst (a regular commenter here) reviewed “The Blackhouse” a few months ago.

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  18. What a fascinating post!

    I really like how you categorized these different types of isolation.

    In Italian literature, I immediately thought of Dino Buzzati’s “The Tartar Steppe” (Il deserto dei Tartari). It fits your description perfectly: Fort Bastiani, perched on a solitary cliff overlooking a vast, desolate desert, creates an incredibly intense atmosphere and perfectly captures the psychological burden of isolation, and endless waiting,

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    • You’re most welcome, Dave; I had to go and check that I’d written a review, when I read the mention of the books, and I’m glad you liked the book enough to include it in a post. To business, though. You’ve got some of the best examples up there, so may I add ‘Mexican Gothic’, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia? I haven’t read the book yet, having only discovered the author recently, but it’s on my TBR pile and I gather takes place in a remote Mexican location. There’s also ‘The Last Man’ by Mary Shelley, in which the globe becomes a place of isolation for Lionel, the last survivor of a global pandemic. Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ finds a bride transported to a castle in a remote area of Normandy, in a ‘Bluebeard’ retelling which I love. And may I add my own ‘Degenerate, Regenerate’, set on a far-flung Greek island where the young have departed to find work elsewhere and the island is dying, along with its ageing population. Thanks for a good post on which to exercise my little grey cells, and have a good week. 🙂

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      • Thank you, Laura, for all those interesting and well-described mentions! The only one I’ve read is Mary Shelley’s “The Last Man” (published exactly 200 years ago in 1826), which I thought was excellent. Set so far in the future that we haven’t yet reached, in 2026, the time period in Shelley’s novel.

        I’m looking forward to reading the third book (“The Chessmen”) in Peter May’s Lewis-set trilogy.

        Have a good week, too!

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