Cast Away, Francesca de Tores’ second historical novel, tells the story of Alexander Selkirk, the putative inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s 1719 classic Robinson Crusoe. A stock-standard retread might easily have run aground upon the Scylla and Charybdis of kitsch and tedium. It is to de Tores’ credit not only that she avoids these, but that the result is such agile, witty, sophisticated entertainment.