Island of Disappointment

The novel takes place at the end of World War II (1944). As a result of the German submarine attack on the Allied caravan, one of the ships, the Iron Bul, is sinking. Only five crew members manage to escape death - Americans Flamery and Moobs, the British Smith and Ceratod, as well as the Russian sailor Egorychev. Fate throws them to an unknown island . The reconnaissance shows that there is a small German garrison on the island, consisting of four SS men . Taking advantage of the surprise, Yegorychev and the fireman Smith capture the Germans in captivity (while two SS men die). Allies become masters of the island. At the same time, a very strange indigenous population lives on the island - on the one hand, natives are at a primitive stage of development, on the other, they speak English well, have English names and surnames, know Shakespeare’s works by heart (depending on merit or crimes, the islander can change his name is in the name of the hero of Shakespeare's work - for example, Romeo (for merits) or Polonius (for misconduct)).

Meanwhile, the arrived allies are developing on the island. The most active activity is developed by Yegorychev and the fireman Smith who joined him. Flameri, Ceratod and Moobs behave passively, insist on the release of German prisoners (garrison commander Major von Fremdengut is Flameri's old business partner) and try to take over the power on the island in every way possible in order to colonize it in favor of their countries.

Yegorychev is trying to figure out - for what purpose the German garrison was abandoned on this god-forgotten island. He also has to make tremendous efforts to prevent quarrels between the "allies." In relation to the indigenous population, the policies of Yegorychev-Smith and Flamery-Ceratod-Moobs are also different. Flamery resorted to provocations , trying to quarrel among themselves the population of villages, in every possible way encouraged his satellites from among the least respected Aborigines, etc. In the end, Yegorychev and Smith separated from their former allies.

Flamery with the support of Mobs frees the Germans. The opportunist Ceratod cannot object - there are two Americans against him (the Englishman), and his position is lost. All this leads to constant contradictions between the allies. At the same time, all of them recognize the danger of Yegorychev spreading communist ideas among the local population - all this will subsequently prevent the capture of the island. Therefore, together with the liberated Germans, the Allies make a punitive sortie into the village where Yegorychev and Smith live. Yegorychev is injured, but the sortie fails. Aborigines, angry at the attack, outlaw the allies, offering to leave the island, and give the SS guilty of murder of the local population for reprisal.

Meanwhile, Yegorychev and Smith find an old manuscript - the dying message of the first European who landed on the island of Disappointment - the Englishman Joshua Penticosta (ancestor of Flamery). He was landed on the island after a quarrel, along with three dozen slaves captured in Africa. Using firearms and becoming, in fact, the dictator of the island, which he called the island of Disappointment, Penticostus taught slaves English and literature. Joshua later hoped to sell educated slaves at an exorbitant price. But, sensing the approach of death, the author of the message was about to commit suicide in secret from his slaves in order to maintain faith in the immortality and divinity of the white man. It becomes clear where the representatives of the Negroid race come from on the tropical island and why they deify the whites.

Flamery and his allies understand that the force is now on the side of the indigenous population (firearms were split in half before Yegorychev and Smith left) and that it is necessary to act by cunning - to lure Yegorychev and the leaders into negotiations and destroy it. Flamery also understands that the Germans' task on this island was to test nuclear weapons and suggests using them. SS Major Fremdengut did not like this idea - he was ordered to wait for the German ship - but there was no choice.

Having set the bomb at the site of the alleged negotiations, Major Fremdengut suddenly notices a ship appearing on the horizon under the fascist flag. Having shot the former "Anglo-American friends" immediately, the Germans seek to defuse the bomb, but they are late and die in the explosion. A nuclear explosion wakes up a volcano dozing on the island - a German ship drowns during its eruption.

Yegorychev, Smith and most of the population escaped in the caves of the island. Subsequently, Smith and Yegorychev return home on a constructed raft.

Since the book was written between 1947 and 1950 (the first round of the Cold War), the book traces the allegory of foreign policy events of this period. Thus, the landing of allies on the island and the capture of the German garrison is associated with the occupation of Germany. The separation of Yegorychev (USSR) from Flamery (USA) and Ceratoda (Great Britain) - the formation of the Iron Curtain. Also allegorical is the use of nuclear weapons at the initiative of the American Flamery.