A world-wide nuclear war--launched by accident--leaves only a handful of survivors. They hope for a miracle, but they know they are doomed. How does a person live when he knows how he is going to die? Some carry on as usual...a few destroy themselves in a last mad grasp at life. On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.
Editorial Review(s)
"The most important novel o the atomic age. If you read only one book a year, this should be the one." —Washington Post
"The most haunting evocation we have of a world dying of radiation after an atomic war.” —The New York Times
"The most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off." —San Francisco Chronicle
"A novelist of intelligent and engaging quality, deservedly popular...Nevil Shute was, in brief, the sort of novelist who genuinely touches the imagination and feeling." —The Times (London)
About the Author
Nevil Shute Norway was born in 1899 in Ealing, London. He studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. Following his childhood passion, he entered the fledgling aircraft industry as an aeronautical engineer working to develop airships and, later, airplanes. In his spare time he began writing and he published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926, using the name Nevil Shute to protect his engineering career. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they had two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death in 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), A Town Like Alice (1950), and On the Beach (1957).