On the Beach, a seminal post-apocalyptic novel, focuses on the last days of humanity as nuclear fallout from an explosion in the northern hemisphere gradually drifts south, extinguishing all life in its path. 
 On the Beach is narrow and calm. You spend most of the book as quietly, reading along and wondering where the action is, until you reach the end and the poignancy hits; the simple story echoes the simple lives the characters lead, knowing their death is inevitable, but the actual moment of death is never simple.