This award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared--and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor. Hatchet has also been nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother's infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present. At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills--how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire--and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.

作者簡介

蓋瑞．伯森 (Gary Paulsen, 1939~)

　　出生在美國明尼蘇達州，先後當過卡車司機、獵捕人、導演、演員、歌手、水手、工程師、農夫、教師，也曾經淪為酒鬼。現定居遠離塵囂的森林，專心從事寫作，是美國聞名而多產的作家，從西部小說到家用維修，各類題材應有盡有，絕大部分取材自他個人的實際經驗。至今出版近200本書，已有十多種譯文，在各國都備受青睞。他不僅是「美國圖書館協會最佳圖書」榮譽榜的常客，《手斧男孩》﹙Hatchet﹚、﹙Dogsong﹚及﹙The Winter Room﹚三書更獲美國知名大獎「紐伯瑞獎」肯定。