Kensuke’s Kingdom

In the 1990s, a young man names Michael decides to write down the story of his adventures that took place 10 years previously, when Michael was 12 years old. This story begins when Michael’s father and Michael’s mother both lose their jobs. They decide to leave their home in England to sail to Australia on their boat, the Peggy Sue. Michael, his parents, and the family dog, Stella Artois, set off, and Michael brings along a soccer ball that his friend Eddie gave him to remind him of home. The family’s voyage on the Peggy Sue is exciting but arduous, as Michael’s mother suffers from worsening seasickness and the family must contend with violent storms. During one of these storms, Michael realizes that Stella Artois is on deck without a safety harness, so he runs to bring her out of the storm. However, Michael neglects to take the proper safety precautions, and he and Stella both fall overboard. He nearly drowns, but he hears someone singing and feels himself being pulled out of the water.

Michael wakes with Stella on a desert island populated by gibbons and orangutans. He explores the island. He is thankful he has Stella for company, but he is lonely and frightened, and he struggles to find resources to survive. When he wakes the following morning, he finds that someone has left him food and water, and he soon meets his savior: an elderly Japanese man named Kensuke, who prevents Michael from lighting a fire and trying to signal for help. Kensuke divides the island into halves and designates one side as his own and the other side as Michael’s. Despite this tension, Kensuke continues to leave food and water for Michael as Michael learns to survive on the island.

Several days later, Michael starts to build a beacon so that he can light it if he sees a ship on the horizon. When he finally sees a boat and gets the chance to light the beacon, Kensuke puts out the fire and dismantles the beacon. Michael is outraged and decides to get back at Kensuke by swimming in a part of the ocean where Kensuke ordered him to avoid. Kensuke tries to stop him, but before Kensuke can intervene, Michael is stung by a large jellyfish.

Kensuke nurses Michael back to health as he recovers from the jellyfish attack, and the two of them get to know each other. Michael learns that Kensuke is a painter, and as the two of them bond, Kensuke teaches Michael to paint. He also teaches him how to survive on the island, and in return Michael teaches Kensuke English.

One day, Kensuke takes Michael fishing on an old outrigger canoe, and Michael finds Eddie’s soccer ball. On the canoe, Kensuke tells Michael how he came to the island. Kensuke is a doctor from Nagasaki, and his family, including his wife and son, were killed in the atomic bombing of the city. Kensuke survived because he was on a naval ship at the time, serving as a doctor for the military, but his ship was bombed and he ended up shipwrecked on the island. Bonding with the island’s wildlife restored Kensuke’s will to live, but he lost any desire to return to humanity when a group of hunters came to the island and killed many of the gibbons. Finally, Kensuke recounts finding Stella and Michael in the sea and saving their lives.

Kensuke confesses that he thinks of Michael as a son, and Michael agrees that he considers Kensuke family. At the same time, Michael still misses his parents, so he tries to send them a message in a bottle. Kensuke finds the bottle and is initially hurt that Michael wants to leave, but he comes to accept that Michael can’t spend the rest of his life on the island. The two of them begin building a beacon together to signal a ship for Michael.

Several days later, a ship appears, but Kensuke recognizes it as a hunters’ ship. Michael and Kensuke hide the orangutans from the hunters, but many gibbons are killed. Kensuke is devastated, but he continues to help Michael build the beacon. They finally light it when they see a sailboat on the horizon, and when the sailboat approaches the island, Michael recognizes it as the Peggy Sue.

Kensuke chooses to stay on the island and asks that Michael keep Kensuke’s existence a secret for 10 years. Michael agrees and leaves to reunite with his parents.

The story returns to adult Michael 10 years later, who has written this book to publicize how Kensuke saved him. After the first edition is published, Michael receives a letter from Michiya Ogawa, Kensuke’s son, who survived the bombing of Nagasaki. At the very end of the novel, Michael goes to Japan to meet Michiya.