Complete Works of Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer, who spent his later years living in Australia. His novels are written in a simple, highly readable style, with clearly delineated plots. An enduring theme of his novels is the dignity of work, spanning all classes. His famous novel ‘On the Beach’ (1957) reflects his pessimism for humanity in the atomic age, while ‘A Town like Alice’ (1950) tackles themes of emigration and racism, as the heroine seeks economic prosperity in a disadvantaged outback community. Several of Shute’s novels explore the boundary between accepted science and rational belief, on the one hand, and mystical or paranormal possibilities, on the other. The author is noted for his unique talent of weaving his technical knowledge of engineering into the texture of his narratives.