The Guns of Navarone (novel)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "The Guns of Navarone" novel – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Guns of Navarone

First edition cover (UK)
Author	Alistair MacLean
Cover artist	John Rose
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Publisher	Collins (UK)
Publication date	1957
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Pages	288
Preceded by	HMS Ulysses
Followed by	South by Java Head

The Guns of Navarone is a 1957 novel about the Second World War by Scottish writer Alistair MacLean that was made into the film The Guns of Navarone in 1961. The story concerns the efforts of an Allied commando team to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea and prevents over 1,200 isolated British Army soldiers from being rescued.

The Greek island of Navarone does not exist and the plot is fictional, but the story takes place within the real historical context of the 1943 Dodecanese campaign.

The Guns of Navarone brings together elements that would characterise much of MacLean's subsequent works: tough, competent, worldly men as main characters; frequent but non-graphic violence; betrayal of the hero(es) by a trusted associate; and extensive use of the sea and other dangerous environments as settings. Its three principal characters – New Zealand mountaineer-turned-commando Keith Mallory, American demolitions expert "Dusty" Miller, and Greek resistance fighter Andrea – are among the most fully drawn in all of MacLean's work.