Nevil Shute

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I've only just recently finished On the Beach (1957), Nevil Shute's haunting meditation on a world dying from radiation. What's to say beside: wow, what a book! And yet, a book which reminded me of others: in its attention to catastrophe, for instance, Shute's classic had me thinking of Saramago's Blindness (1997), while its insights (into the human condition, mostly) triggered memories of Camus's The Plague (1947). Needless to say, literary associations abound - and I'm eager to tackle the film version of this masterful novel...