The Fair Day's Work/Time Before This Author:Nicholas Monsarrat Two novels by the author of THE CRUEL SEA, both serious but widely separate in theme. A FAIR DAY'S WORK pivots on a wildcat strike that cripples the liner Good Hope. At berth in Liverpool, the festive passengers and determined strikers offer memorable contrasts.... THE TIME BEFORE THIS tackles a grimmer subject: extermination by thermonuclear... more » war. Focus is on Grant Shepherd, a visionary loner, who discovers evidence in Canada's vast wilderness that a sophisticated civilization dwelt there before us. He attributes its demise to nuclear holocaust, "because it discovered more than it knew how to use." Will these words be our own epitaph?« less