William Alan Bales

The history of mankind is told in "The Seeker" by William Alan Bates, a fable of only 130 pages. A survivor of an air crash crawls onto an in unpeopled African beach and survives by his cunning and instincts. He progresses from primitive savage to, at the end, a Christ-like figure. Bates may err in viewing moral progress in the same way he sees man's technological progress, but that doesn't spoil the overall effect of the novel.