[The main premise of "On the Beach"] was made to order for Nevil Shute, who never tells the same story twice and who tells any story surpassingly well. The Shute formula is simple: Given such and such circumstances, what would people beset by those circumstances be most likely to do? That should be every novelist's formula, but a less assured practitioner frequently bends it to suit his own convenience. Not Nevil Shute. He holds to his design all the way, with relentless logic and a glowing sense of story supported by a mass of convincing detail (gas pumps as hitching posts, for instance) that establishes superb verisimilitude.

This quality dominates "On the Beach" even more than is usual in a Nevil Shute novel. For this could be the blueprint for all of us. His handful of Australians plan for the future (next year's farm crop, even next year's...