From Publishers Weekly Of this "mesmerizing" tale of eight shipwrecked British schoolgirls， their governess and her eponymous lover， a sailor， PW observed， "Wiggins strips away the veneer of civilization to reveal the raw， primitive heart of nature and human nature." Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From School Library Journal YA-- Described by the author as a "female Lord of the Flies ，" this book is every bit as chilling and brutal as Golding's. It is around 1919 and Charlotte， a young widow， takes on the job of tutoring the daughters of British subjects in Burma. She enters into a passionate affair with John Dollar， captain of a small ship. Soon a foreshadowing of the savagery to come occurs on an apparently genteel picnic when the migration of sea turtles to lay their eggs on the beach becomes a blood bath. In very quick order a tidal wave strikes， the young girls are left to survive on their own with a paralyzed John Dollar， and a group with no code of behavior or morals drifts into shocking cannibalism. The last 20 pages of the book are spine tingling. Wiggins (wife of Salman Rushdie) has given her readers an uncomfortably clear picture of a society in which great gentility and dark human conduct coexist. It is both thought-provoking and horrifying. Its dark， disturbing message about life on a primitive， lawless basis is neither easy to acknowledge nor easy to dismiss.- Barbara Weathers， Duchesne Academy， HoustonCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews