The Mosquito Coast

Allie Fox is allergic to the whole big, bad consumerist mess that constitutes the late 20th century so he abandons modern America, dragging his family to the depths of the Honduran jungle to escape. His inventiveness and know-it-all arrogance enable him to carve out his own vision of self-sufficiency from the jungle, creating an ice-making plant to amaze the natives. He ignores the power and blind cruelty of nature, creating his own disaster while the jungle reclaims what it had lost. This won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was made into a film in 1986 by Pete Weir. (Kirkus UK)