Dec 19, 2009
On the Beach | On the Beach
At a glance:
- Author: Nevil Shute Norway
- First Published: 1957
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—post-holocaust
- Time of Work: December, 1962-August, 1963
- Setting: Melbourne and Falmouth, Australia
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Apocalyptic and catastrophe fiction
- Subjects: 1960’s, Future, War, Death or dying, Health, Military life or service, Soldiers, Disasters, Terminal illness or terminally ill, End of the world, Atomic bomb, Euthanasia or right to die, Nuclear warfare or weapons, Submarines, Australia or Australians, Radiation
- Locales: Seattle, WA, Melbourne, Australia
The Plot
On the Beach takes places in Melbourne, Australia, and its nearby seaside suburb of
Falmouth, between December, 1962, and August, 1963. A thirty-seven-day nuclear war has
destroyed the Northern Hemisphere. The survivors south of the equator understand very little about
this “war without a history” except that the deadly radiation released into the
atmosphere by the hydrogen bombs is inevitably drifting their way. The war’s origins are
particularly murky, but it is known that a minor power (probably either Albania or Egypt) ignited
the conflagration. In the...
[The entire page is 1043 words long]
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