Nevil Shute’s “On the Beach”

The book draws remarkable parallels to more contemporary novels on the subject, like Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”, which follows a father and son travelling through the desolated landscape of a ruined Earth. Though it lacks the rampant irradiated landscape of Shute’s novel, the ecological collapse of both novels is clear, and the aftermath of a world where the nukes have begun to fly is both desolate and grim.