Nevil Shute

The last generation, innocent victims of an accidental nuclear war, live out their last days, make plans that will never be carried out, and hope for a miracle that will not come. As the deadly rain moves closer, the world as we know it moves toward the end.

Keith Stewart is a quiet and unassuming man called upon to undertake an extraordinary task. A skilled maker of miniature working models, he lives a modest life devoted to his hobby. But when his sister and her wealthy husband die in a shipwreck on a coral reef in the Pacific—while trying to smuggle out of England their entire fortune in diamonds hidden in the keel of their yacht—Keith becomes trustee for his orphaned niece. To save her...

An old man lies dying during the rainy season in the Queensland outback. And in the night, slipping in and out of an opium sleep that drifts him towards death, he draws his listener into a tale that opens onto incredible horizons.

She was from the hills of Yorkshire, country born and bred. He was a city boy. By the stream where they fished, they were two young people falling in love. Overhead, the bombers roared, threatening to blow their idyllic world, so young, so fresh, to smithereens.

A group of survivors attempt to live normal lives in post-apocalyptic Australia, waiting for the inevitable arrival of killer radiation.

An aeronautical engineer predicts a new type of airplane will fail after a certain amount of time in the air, and then finds himself onboard one of the doomed planes while headed to a crash site.