I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times book review, and this is the book review podcast.

Recently, I was in Chicago, a city I had not visited in many years, and I came across a wonderful

bookstore called Exile in Bookville.

The name's a riff, of course, on the Liz Phair album, Exile in Guyville.

Cool story, very nice lighting situation, good music on the record player.

I actually went twice.

And the second time I went to Exile in Bookville, I saw a volume on the shelf. It was

titled simply Nuclear War, A Scenario. I remembered this book. It came out last year. We

reviewed it positively at the book review. So I picked it up. I read the first page, and I immediately

had to buy it. The opening pages were scary and gripping

and written with such detail about one of the worst things imaginable, a thermonuclear attack on

Washington, D.C. that starts a terrible chain reaction of thousands of nuclear missiles flying across the globe.

This week, as we approach the 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

I have on the show Annie Jacobson, author of Nuclear War, a scenario to talk about her book,

which details minute by minute, and even in some places

second by second, how the world might end.

A cheery August episode.

Annie, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

Now, I was really shook by this book.

I mentioned many people have been.

How many people, roughly, have told you that this is one of the more terrifying books that they've ever read?

...