The Cay

The Cay is a tense and compulsive survival story by Theodore Taylor of a young boy and an old man adrift on the ocean, then marooned on a tiny, deserted island. It is also a fascinating study of the relationship between Phillip, white, American, and influenced by his mother’s prejudices, and the black man upon whom Phillip’s life depends. Theodore Taylor was born in 1921 in North Carolina, USA. The idea for The Cay, his first novel for children, came when he was researching an adult book about German submarine attacks in the Second World War. The Cay was first published in 1969 and has won many literary awards. Theodore Taylor died in 2006.