Six of the best books with sympathetic characters in dangerous settings

Alan Gurganus's books include White People, Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All, and the novella Decoy.

At The Week magazine he tagged his six favorite books with sympathetic characters in dangerous settings, including:

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

This early modernist masterwork anticipates contemporary loneliness. Can a single psyche, doing solitary on an island for decades, ever learn to love itself? Yes. Then relief arrives: TGIF!

Read about another entry on the list.

Robinson Crusoe is one of ten great books about hurricanes, and among Bear Grylls's top ten stories of survival and bravery.

The Page 99 Test: Robinson Crusoe.

--Marshal Zeringue