I first read this book when I was 12 and absolutely adored it. But another 12 years passed before I was able to read it again. Living in the states, I found it very hard to track down a copy; then a friend of mine special ordered one from the UK for me. With so much time having passed, I had the thrill of being able to read it again as though for the first time---I didn't remember 2/3's of the story! Over a decade later and as an adult, I found it to be a brilliant, believable, and stirring idea of what might be left of the human race after a nuclear holocaust. Lawrence paints very fully imagined scenes with strong descriptions, some of which remained as images in my head like a childhood dream from my first 12-year-old reading. I'm glad to have a copy safely on my shelves to read once more another 12 years down the road. ( )

I read this book back in elementary school and was so completely freaked out by it that I stopped reading YA books at the library. I was afraid to even look at it on the shelf. Onto the grownup section.

The book chronicles 3 generations of a family during and after a nuclear holocaust. It...haunted me for years. Though a definite product of the cold war, the book is set in England with no over anti-american or anti-russian sentiment. It is merely a book about surviving disaster, what it does to family (as a window to what has happened in society) and what a family (and humanity) become as a result of that disaster. ( )

This starts off really sad and brittle, i guess a nuclear attack will do that. Its a good story that gets better the further into it you get and it ends on a hopeful note. ( )