On the Beach (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
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...
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