About this title: After the war is over, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards on the winds, gradually poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable. Despite his memories of his wife, he becomes close to a young woman struggling to accept the harsh realities of their situation. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from the United States and the submarine must set sail through the bleak ocean to search for signs of life. "On the Beach" is Nevil Shute's most powerful ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Third Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Scholastic
Date published: 1968
Description: Fair. No Jacket. First Couple Pages Coming Loose, Markings On Inside/Outside Front Cover, Corners Bumped, Covers Creased, Text Is Unmarked, Good Reading Copy. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"Well written & so plausible that it's scary, it's also survived the test of time very well. Written over 50 years ago in 1957 by engineer Nevel Shute Norman, an engineer who owned a firm that made secret stuff for the British government, it amazed me by how the politics & cause of the war are still so possible.
The book follows about 6 people for the last 6 months of their lives. There is no explicit sex or violence. The northern hemisphere has been turned into a radioactive wasteland & the radioactivity is slowly moving south. Australia has about 6 months to live & they know it. They keep their civilization going. No 'Mad Max' scenarios. Just law abiding folks who know the end is coming.
It's fantastic & horrifying & depressing, but also neat on several levels. Shute shows us people at their very best after the very worst has happened. The coping mechanisms they use & the little problems they have & overcome. it's quite a fantastic journey & well worth the time to read.
I've never seen either film made from the book & don't think I care to since they screwed up the endings according to Wikipedia."
"I read this book as a challenge from a book group I belong to. We were asked to find & read 2 books from our birth year. On The Beach was one of the 2 I chose.
It was interesting to me to read a book written in 1957 & to see how things were viewed at that time as far as wars & nuclear weapons.....this book could have been written now....
I found it an easy read, I wanted to keep reading it but I also had some issues with some of the military technical terms & some of the Aussie language but overall it was a very good & well written book that has stood the test of time.....Nevil Shute died a few years after the book was written.
I don't want to say too much about the actual story & ruin it for others. The way people handled themselves day-to-day was fascinating....from denial, to looking towards the future, to thoughts of suicide...very emotional book....."
"This book by Nevil Shute was written at the height of the cold war and it's still meaningful today. In fact, it's so relevant that it should be required reading for anyone in power, actually it should probably be required reading for everyone on the planet. Period.
On the Beach is set in Australia, and it becomes clear quite quickly that something horrible has happened. And that horrible thing is a full out nuclear war in the northern hemisphere of the Earth. Those left in the southern hemisphere are either dead or waiting to meet their end from the slow drift of radiation heading their way. The story follows several characters through to their respective ends: Dwight, a submariner from the US, Moira, a young woman who is bitter about her life being cut short, a young couple with a baby and a scientist who chooses to spend his last few months racing a car he probably shouldn't be driving. The way that the characters choose to live their lives, even after being handed a death sentence, provides you with a little faith in the general goodness of human nature. The dignity with which they carry themselves is a nice respite on the generally inevitable bad behavior that usually takes place in post apocalyptic novels They don't start rioting and destroying things around them, they just...go on. You get to know the characters and that's what makes the ending heartbreaking, their realness really drives home that this kind of thing could happen to normal people if we aren't careful. If this book doesn't affect you, well, there's something wrong with you.
Shute's style in this book is a little wonky and some of the prose seems a little stilted. Since he wrote it in the 50's there are some words that don't ring true today, but that doesn't detract from the book at all. I watched the movie right after I read the book because I was so enamored with it, but I ended up being disappointed with it because it didn't carry the same impact. Read the book, it makes you want to be a little bit kinder to everyone in the world."
"I went into this book, knowing what I was likely to get; a rather frank look at the effects of nuclear war. After the northern hemisphere has been bombed in numerous places by several countries, the inhabitants of Australia are patiently waiting for the fallout to circulate down through to the southern hemisphere.
A bulk of the plot deals with the captain of a submarine, and the two or three missions out to discover whats happened in the rest of the world. However, most of the book is the day to day life of waiting to die, cut in a rather chilling, and believable way. The nastiest bits of the book are how people deal with it, and how they talk about it.
One thread of hope comes when a radio signal starts coming out of North America, and the sub and its crew are sent to investigate. Make no quams about it though, its probably not a spoiler to note that there is no happy ending in this one. Shute approaches the subject as front on, and as bluntly as it would be."
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