Association Award for Best Debut Novel and the Galaxy National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year and has been translated into more than 40 languages.
The film of the book, starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, and directed by Rowan Joffe, was released in September 2014.
Watson’s second novel, Second Life, a psychological thriller, was published to acclaim in 2015.
His new novel is Final Cut.
At CrimeReads, Watson tagged six "books set by the sea and which couldn’t be set elsewhere." One title on the list:
The Beach, Alex GarlandRead about another entry on the list.
Garland’s debut, memorably turned into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, tells the story of a once-hidden paradise gone badly wrong. Richard is given a map to a hidden beach by a traveller (emphatically NOT a tourist) who then kills himself. Determined to reach this idyll, and with two new friends in tow, he sets out, though not without first copying the map for two backpackers with whom he has a casual acquaintance, an act which will have catastrophic consequences. This is a brilliant and eviscerating book, and it’s hard to believe either that it was Garland’s first, or that it was published over twenty years ago.
The Beach also appears on Cat Barton's top five list of books on Southeast Asian travel literature, Kate Kellaway's ten best list of fictional holidays, Eleanor Muffitt top 12 list of books that make you want to pack your bags and trot the globe, Anna Wilson's top ten list of books set on the seaside, the Guardian editors' list of the 50 best summer reads ever, John Mullan's list of ten of the best swimming scenes in literature, and Sloane Crosley's list of five depressing beach reads.
--Marshal Zeringue
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