I liked this material. Shipwrecked sailors on two separate islands in the sub-Arctic struggling to survive, one group miraculously survives the other goes feral. I loved reading about these brave and callow sailors, though it must be said that much less is known about the ones that went crazy and ate each other, as they died rather quickly and hadn't the time or later inclination to write much about their awful experiences. It is amazing how resourceful the Frenchmen Raynal was, and I was left to muse about his feats: building a forge, house, boat, shoes with nothing but ingenuity. I felt proud to be human. Less pleasing was the constant murdering of seals. Anyone who likes survival stories, or stories about the sea would surely enjoy this book.