A revelatory meditation on humanity . . . If you're wondering how any author could wring a novel of more than 300 pages out of such scanty components, the answer is soon clear: compelling characterisation. De Tores's Selkirk is an adorably reprobate antihero whose company never palls as we follow him through his long days spent hunting and skinning goats, smoking, scavenging and – understandably – engaged in furious bouts of onanism . . . A poignant, sophisticated portrait of a man far more modern and interesting – at least in De Tores's telling – than the historical record might let on

A. K. Blakemore, Guardian

De Tores builds Selkirk's world with detail and patience – it's an impressive imaginative feat

Antonia Senior, The Times

What I imagine must have been lengthy and meticulous research has transformed on the page into a vivid, utterly convincing and immersive read . . . Beautiful, fascinating, heartbreaking, philosophically engaging – and often very funny. A necessary and delightful corrective to the Crusoe mythology

JO HARKIN, author of The Pretender

What makes Cast Away exceptional is the way de Tores threads Selkirk's metaphysical struggles through the story, and writes about them with poetry, whimsy and humour. De Tores asks: what is the nature of a human, when everything extraneous has gone? I read Cast Away over one weekend and could not put it down. I adored it

TONI JORDAN, author of Tenderfoot

Delivers rich detail . . . with a concrete physical immediacy that is absolutely persuasive

New Zealand Listener

A brilliant story that drew me in from the first line . . . de Tores weaves a tale of survival and philosophical reflections about what it means to be human

Good Reading Magazine