On the Beach by Nevil Shute

On the Beach
Nevil Shute
1957, 1974, Pan Books, London
0330105701
267p.

Nuclear war takes out the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, leaving the fallout to slowly creep down the Southern Hemisphere and kill the remaining people.  This is set in Australia and tells of the last few months of a few individuals.

Emotive, moving story.  Simply heartbreaking.  These characters are written so well ... these people are my uncle, my father, my sisters, and my friends.  I know all these people.  This book is so eerily accurate - I read a fair bit of post-apocalyptic stuff, and this has got to be by far the most accurate as to what would actually happen, how people would actually behave.  And it made me cry.  Quite a bit.

"This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but with a whimper." - TS Eliot

Link to journal at bookcrossing