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Nuclear War

A Scenario

Annie Jacobsen

Up to now, no one outside of official circles has known exactly what would happen if a rogue state launched a nuclear missile at the Pentagon. Second by second and minute by minute, these are the real-life protocols that choreograph the end of civilisation as we know it. Frantic calls over secure lines work to confirm the worst as armoured helicopters are scrambled to evacuate the chosen few to secure bunkers. One nuclear missile will provoke two dozen in return. Decisions over hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, knowing that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction.

Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts, Nuclear War is at once a compulsive non-fiction thriller and a powerful argument that we must rid ourselves of these world-ending weapons for ever.

First published:
28/03/2024
Published by:
Transworld, Torva
Length:
Hardcover 400 pages
What the judges said

"This is impossible to put down, and a book that everyone should read"

About the author

photo credit: Hilary Jones


Annie Jacobsen is a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of Area 51, Operation Paperclip, Surprise, Kill, Vanish and others. Her books have been translated into nine languages. She also writes and produces TV, including Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two sons.