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On the Beach
  
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On the Beach (Hardcover)

by Nevil Shute (Author) "LIEUTENANT COMMANDER PETER HOLMES of the Royal Australian Navy woke soon after dawn ..." (more)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

"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."
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
They are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war, living out their last days, making do with what they have, hoping for a miracle. As the deadly rain moves ever closer, the world as we know it winds toward an inevitable end.... --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.


Ingram

A novel about the survivors of an atomic war, who face an inevitable end as radiation poisoning moves toward Australia from the North. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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LIEUTENANT COMMANDER PETER HOLMES of the Royal Australian Navy woke soon after dawn. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

154 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
 (39)
3 star:
 (16)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:
 (13)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (154 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and Heartbreaking, April 14 2007
By BITTER (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On the Beach (Mass Market Paperback)
Next to "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "The Color Purple", I can't think of any other books that made me cry. I first saw "On The Beach" in movie form, and it had such an effect on me, I had to buy the book. The book was even better than the movie, but just like the movie, poignant, depressing and only now can I not think about a potential nuclear holocaust. The book is so simple and matter of fact about the last days of civilization. At the same time, you want a miracle to happen, but it doesn't. With all that is going on in North Korea and Iran right now, the novel has sort of a desperate poignancy.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book...VERY Depressing, Jul 15 2004
By C. Connolly (Fair Lawn, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: On the Beach (Mass Market Paperback)
A great, simple book very well written and poignant. What's interesting about it is that as we enter the story, the nuclear war that will eventually doom the characters in the story has already occurred and is over. They are simply awaiting the lethal radioactive cloud to move down to the southern hemisphere and begin to kill everyone off. The people carry on their daily lives as if nothing has happened. But we see in several key scenes early in the book how painfully, heartbreakingly aware they really are. And that's the key power to the story. These people know they're doomed but what choice do they have except to continue on with their lives. The most painful scene I found in the book was how the young couple with the baby begin to plan out their garden for the next year knowing full well that they are not going to be around to see it. They're fooling themselves, obviously, but how else to cope with the inevitable.

In the end, the book has the same effect as a movie called "Testament" with Jane Alexander. You'll be depressed and feeling a little scared and hopeless.

This is not light reading.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Spooky, eminently readable book, Jul 7 2004
By Far Lefkas (Balto.-WDC metro area) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On the Beach (Mass Market Paperback)
I'd heard about this book for years; finally got 'round to reading it. A year or so after a nuclear war, fought entirely in the Northern Hemisphere, folks on the southeast coast of Australia await their fate: a radioactive wind carried around the earth.

Shute was not writing high art here: @times it sounds almost like reportage, but he manages to maintain a modicum of suspense throughout the novel by placing his characters in semi-routine situations that are always circumscribed by their finality: this is the last time we will ever...

A bland scientist cuts loose in an annual auto race; a couple spends their last hours together fishing in the mountains; another couple landscapes their yard until they're too weak to stand. The exchange betw. the submarine captain & the escaped crewman Swain is frighteningly unbearable in its blandness: "I know how you feel, sailor," sighs CDR Towers, as Swain chugs across the sub's path in a motor boat, just off the coast of his deserted hometown in Washington State.

On the Beach was a super-quick read: the messages were not hidden but revealed in conversations among the characters. If we had the chance, would we do anything differently? Has anybody recorded a history of this?

The book end with the inevitable, the deaths of all the characters, & it just doesn't matter whether people survive in Tasmania or New Zealand, for their deaths won't be long in coming.

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling and moving
After being forced to read this my junior year of high school in English class, one of my friends hated it so much that he wrote a song called "Nevil Shute Can Kiss My *#&. Read more
Published on Jun 4 2004 by S.R.W. Phillips

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting....
I have read this book twice now - with a space of 14 years in between - and I found I got a lot more out of it and remembered quite a lot from the first time. Read more
Published on April 7 2004 by D. L. Kroeker

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book is Probably The Sole Reason WW3 Never Happened
I read this book about 44 years ago when I was a kid and still remember passages. One of the best novels ever written! Read more
Published on April 4 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars The end of the World
When he wrote this novel the end of the world in a nuclear holocaust was a very real prospect. Time has passed, and the nuclear threat has receeded. Read more
Published on Feb 16 2004 by Sailoil

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely thought-provoking
I picked this book up at the recommendation of a friend, having an interest in dystopia/apocalyptic books. Read more
Published on Feb 1 2004 by Topazsfp

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic
If you do not like this book, then can we conclude you do not like books??

This is a well written book which I think is now considered a something of a classic. Read more

Published on Jan 1 2004 by J. E. Robinson

4.0 out of 5 stars Depressing, but Moving
The end of the world is coming.
The madness of nuclear war has consumed the Northern hemisphere and the ensuing radiation is seeping south to destroy Australia. Read more
Published on Dec 31 2003 by L. D. Rhoden Jr.

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep, thoughtful, will make you think....
This definately isn't a light book, by any definition. The subject matter is depressing, but in a good way. It makes you want to jump up and find a hippie peace movement. Read more
Published on Dec 2 2003 by horseplaypen

5.0 out of 5 stars Like A Bath For the Soul
This book is not for those of the action-packed "post-apocalyptic" genre. This is for those of us who like to think "what if" for more than mere entertainment. Read more
Published on Nov 6 2003 by Christian E. Senftleben

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly realistic
Could very will be an accurate prediction of what will happen. Gets a person to thinking about the choices made today.
Published on Oct 10 2003 by bjkreyke

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