On the Beach

By: Nevil Shute

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

A war no one fully understands has devastated the planet with radioactive fallout from massive cobalt bombing. Melbourne, Australia, is the only area whose citizens have not yet succumbed to the contamination. But there isn’t much time left, a few months, maybe more—and the citizens of Melbourne must decide how they will live the remaining weeks of their lives, and how they will face a hopeless future.

Published in 1957, On the Beach is considered a classic nuclear holocaust novel, and a masterpiece of speculative fiction.

©1957 Nevil Shute Norway (P)1991 Recorded Books, LLC

What an extraordinary book!

What an extraordinary book! I can honestly say that I loved this book, even though it's subject matter was a bit dark.

Interesting premis, well written

Neither the story or the characters really capture you. The end is laid out for us right away and we are supposed to enjoy the steady decline to death. Not really a page-tiurner, but you'll want to know how it ends.

Marvelous book.

As poignant today as it was in '57. Amazing characters. This book is a joy to read again.

Unfortunately, perhaps timely once again.

I saw the movie, "On the Beach," some 60 years ago when we were still thinking about ducking and covering, building "bomb shelters," and rather constantly bearing the weight of a looming nuclear war, I thought it would be interesting to "read" the book after all these years. I think I rather completely missed the point of the movie years ago. Then I thought it was about trying to survive a nuclear Armageddon. Now I think it is about every human's individual death and what our pending demise tells us about what is important to us while we live. As Carlos Castaneda wrote in "The Teachings of Don Juan," we should let our deaths be our advisors.
The audio book is well recorded, The narrator, Simon Prebble, is easy to understand even in a moving car with a rumbling background noise that, for me, makes some audio books difficult to hear well enough to enjoy.. The story is very engrossing and moving. The issue, unfortunately, is once again timely. I would highly recommend the audio book.

Overall, a satisfactory listen

Nevil Shute tells his insightful novel well, but there are some reservations about a few concepts.

An easy read, and a brutally hard read

I just finished “On The Beach”, by Nevil Shute.

It’s a fantastic book, and I strongly encourage you NOT to read it. It’s really dusty in here and I think I got some in my eyes; they’re watering.

Don’t read it, because the end is predestined from the first page. Don’t read it, because it’s hopeless. Don’t read it, because each and every single character is so human and relatable and you can’t sit with them, knowing their horrible fate, which they have no means to prevent, and which they face bravely, being ordinary people like friends and colleagues who we all know.

Or do read it, if you want to be melancholy.

a little too dated in language and attitude

Some classic apocalyptic stories stand the test of time better than others, and this is one of the "others". Certainly not the worst of the genre, but I think the language and attitude are a little too dated to really keep the reader, or listener, engaged. It was good, but not up to the level of some of the other great books of the genre.

The idea is a good one - not how do people deal with surviving an apocalypse, but what do people do when they know an apocalyptic event is coming and that they won't survive? Or rather, what do they do when they're in the final wave of the apocalyptic event, have seen the rest of the world fall, and know they will too be victims within a year or so? Would they really take the "stay calm and carry on" attitude expressed by the characters in this book (written by a a British author who was in the Royal Naval Reserves in WW II) or is that attitude lost in the changes in the last 50 years?

I should have known...

The story was great and the narrator very good. Why was I surprised by the depressing ending? Duh. Don’t listen to the last chapter . You know what happens from the book description and it is totally predictable.

Haunting.

I love post-apocolyptic books but this one is special in it's calmness in the face of inescapable doom. I read it few months ago and it's still haunting me (in the good way). The characters and their actions cross my mind as I do everyday things. It taught me to appreciate life.

heart breaking lessons

today, 10/14/2017, and I pray the ugliness of our beautiful earth learns heart breaking lessons.