For those interested in other novels by Nevil Shute, his most popular work is probably A Town Like Alice (1950). It chronicles Jean Paget's experiences during World War II in Malaya and her subsequent life in the Australian outback.

Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon (1959) is an American novel about the survivors of a nuclear war living in Florida. A loafer named Randy Bragg turns into a leader after a bomb is dropped on Miami.

Russell Hoban's 1980 novel, Riddley Walker, is set in England thousands of years in the future after a nuclear war wipes out most of the life on the planet. It relates the story of a young man's life in a neo-barbarian society. The novel is notable because of Hoban's clever use of language.

The Making of the Atom Bomb (1986), written by Richard Rhodes, is an in-depth history of the...