A Breath of Air

The publishers define this as a modern Tempest. True enough, in that castaways from the bustling outer world find refuge on an unchartered island -- and find, too, the overlord of the island, a man from their own world who has shed the bondage of material things at home, only to acquire vast riches for which he has no use, vast power over the more or less helpless natives of the island, and vast disdain for anything that reminds him of the past.