Hatchet

Brian Robeson is stranded alone in the Canadian wilderness after the pilot of the single-engine Cessna 206 Stationair plane in which he is traveling suffers a fatal heartattack. Brian is forced to try to land the plane, but ends up crash-landing the plane into a lake. He just manages to escape as the plane sinks into the remote lake.

Brian figuresout how to make fire. He forces himself to eat whatever food he can find, such as turtle eggs, fish, berries, fruit, some rabbits, and even a couple of birds. He deals with aporcupine, bear, skunk, moose, and a tornado. He eventually becomes quite a craftsman, crafting a bow, arrows, and a spear. He also fashions a shelter out of the underside of a rockoverhang. During the story, he struggles with memories of home, and the bittersweet memory of his mother, whom Brian has discovered was cheating on his father.

When a tornadohits the woods and lake, it draws the plane wreckage toward the top of the lake. Brian makes a raft from a few broken off tree tops to get to the plane. When Brian is working hisway into the plane, he drops his hatchet in the water. He realizes how critical the hatchet is for his survival. After diving twice, he retrieves the hatchet and narrowly avoidsdrowning. Inside the plane, he finds a survival pack, which has an emergency transmitter, many packs of food, a first aid kit, a pot, and .22 survival rifle (likely an AR-7 ).Brian activates the transmitter, but not knowing how to work it, he thinks it is broken. As he is eating the food packs, a fur buyer arrives in a float plane some time afterbecause he caught the transmitter's signal. Finally, after reaching his father, he is no closer to being able to tell him about the mother's affair than at the novel's beginning.