A book set in the future (i.e. 1962!), describing the last months of some people who live near Melbourne, Australia as the world population is being killed off by radiation poisoning left over from a nuclear war. The radiation is sweeping over the world and has already killed the northern hemisphere, so these people know almost exactly how long they have to live, and how they will die. This book describes how they deal with this and what they do beforehand- it is a really sad and scary book, and very lifelike. Really good but quite unpleasant to read.

This is indeed a sad book. I've still got a few pages to go, but we know what's going to happen (at least in outline) and have done for a long time. It's interesting to see how the author thinks people will react to their impending deaths by radiation poisoning; most people seem to deny the fact to themselves, carrying on making plans for the following years. I was also surprised by how well the population at large behaved. Maybe Australians are just nicer people than the people in countries I've lived in, but I'm sure if that happened in modern Britain, there would be mass riots, general looting and all sorts of crime. I suppose that's an effect of changing times - the book was written in 1957, when the threat of a nuclear war seemed (and probably was) very real. Well worth reading, but don't expect a happy ending.

Released on Wednesday, August 04, 2004 at Lobby of the Lodge at Snowbird in Snowbird Ski And Summer Resort, Utah USA.

On one of the brown armchairs near the reception.