On the Beach
by
Nevil Shute
Good Books rating 4.08
Technical:
- ID: 56
- Added: 2025-08-22
- Updated: 2025-09-02
- ISBN: 9781409087397
- Publisher: Random House
- Published: 2010-01-26
- Reviews: 3
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 novel. Both gripping and intensely moving, its impact is unforgettable.
Reviews
Pull quotes
- A group of survivors in Melbourne, Australia live out their final days as a cloud of fatal radiation spreads.
- The characters deal with their impending demise in quite different ways.
- Professor John Osborne fulfills his lifelong desire to drive a racecar.
Pull quotes
- The residents of the city are beginning to slow down and do what they really want to do in their final days.
- John eventually wins the Grand Prix and takes a cyanide pill while sitting in his Ferrari.
- Dwight dies while performing what he sees as his final duty—sinking the Scorpion in international waters.
Pull quotes
- Shute powerfully shows the horror of a nuclear war.
- Dwight Towers holds on to a false belief that his family is still alive, which gives him strength.
- The dynamics between Towers and Moira, with his strict duty and her attempts to distract herself, are the most compelling.