On the Beach

By: Nevil Shute

Narrated by: James Smillie

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Australia is one of the last places where life still exists after nuclear war starts in the Northern Hemisphere. A year on, an invisible cloak of radiation has spread almost completely around the world.

Darwin is a ghost town, and radiation levels at Ayres Rock are increasing. An American nuclear-powered submarine has found its way to Australia, where its captain has placed the boat under the command of the Australian Navy. Commander Dwight Towers and his Australian liaison officer are sent to the coast of North America to discover whether a stray radio signal originating from near Seattle is a sign of life.

©2009 The Trustees of the Estate of the late Nevil Shute Norway (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

This Review Needs a Title...

People of Australia are just waiting to die from the fallout of a massive world war. There is no hope of survival, they don't even try. This is a stirring, eerily believable short work by Nevil Shute. The main characters are a US submarine commander, Dwight Towers, and his counterpart, lt. commander Peter Holmes, an Australian. Towers has survived by virtue of being out to sea at the time of the war, Holmes is a married man with a wife and daughter. These men maintain their military personae to the end and are engaged in measuring radiation levels and other useless research, which they recognize as useless even as they carry their orders out.

One of the Best Doomday Novels

Any thought of doomsday is not attractive. This novel portrays a possible scenario of the elimation of mankind based upon faulty information.

sad but relevant to today's world situation

exceptionally good narration
describing an awful situation.
a very human story
of pain and happiness

On The Beach...where I would be

This book is not it all what I expected it to be when I opened it and begin to listen. The love story within groups your heart and seems as though it’s going to break it but in the end it all makes sense and you know that’s the only way it could end.

Different than expected

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I've become intrigued with the Post Apocalyptic novels, and this is one of the "classics" in the genre. Much different than any of the others where there is a sense of urgency to make the right plans, gather the right equipment, and fight off bandits to fight for survival. This one is based in Australia where life continues, for a while, following a worldwide nuclear devastation and the Southern Latitudes are just waiting for the fall out to arrive. This is a look at how people behave when they know the end will come for them in the not so distant future.
It's an interesting take on the genre and an entertaining listen. Good character development, and narration. I'm glad I read it but found it a bit lazy compared to more of the thriller types and the audio quality was never equalized. I was constantly needing to adjust my volume to understand what was being said.
All in all, it was worth the credit.

Truly a classic-it stands on it’s own and is a powerful read.

“On The Beach” by Nevil Shute is a timeless Classic and is good for awakening the World to the dangers of Nuclear War. I nearly died when I was 17, from my Appendix, and I was in so much pain that I could not move, but was saved at the last minute by my Mother and Grandmother , who got me to the Emergency at St. Lukes Hospital and I know what it is like to suffer. I would never have taken my own Life. But the characters in the book did and the adventure was cut by radiation sickness. A very sad ending indeed. Surely someone must have survived in the world, and there is at least some Hope. A very incredible story. I love this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Second time with this book for me

This book was written more than 60 years ago when the cold war was getting underway and there was still nuclear testing happening. There was a desire on the part of the author to paint a picture of exactitude about what the end would look like for humans and for the Earth if we were to engage in such a stupid war...using nuclear weapons, that is. Using them would mean global death, not just for humans but for all animal life. It's an old book so it is sexist. But the story fits. This may be the way humans would face our demise. I hope that we humans can avoid such an end. We are a catastrophe for the Earth. She hopefully will outlive us.

well-written and sobering book

I learned about this book when I was looking for a book set in Melbourne, Australia. I'd never heard of Nevil Shute and decided to take it on. I do like an occasional post-apocalyptic story and this certainly is one. When the book begins we learn that everyone is expected to die because of a nuclear war. The radiation has been heading south of the equator. The book is set in the early 1960s, but published in 1957. What if the Bay of Pigs invasion had turned into nuclear war? Would this have been what we were looking at?


As I listened to the book I hoped it wouldn't be true. There are some very likeable characters. I don't know how I'd deal with this knowledge, but I've spent time thinking about it since starting this book. I'll definitely add more Nevil Shute books in the future. I like his style. This was well narrated also.

On the beach

That book is the saddest I’ve ever heard. I could not bare to listen to the last chapter. Who writes such morbid stuff? To sad!

I So Wanted to Like This

This is not a book about submarines, survival, apocalypse, disaster. This could very well have been a book about a group of people dying of cancer. In other words: We are sick, we know we are dying, we know how much time we have left, we know everyone else is dead, how do we cope until the end. Depressing and slow. If you enjoy being depressed and listening to people lament, then this book is for you. Zzzzzzzz!