ROSHWALD, Mordecai (Marceli)

(1921-)

   Polish-born Israeli writer and academic, variously resident also in the USA and the UK, whose sf novels Level 7 (1959 US) and A Small Armageddon (1962 UK) were both coloured by political concern about ournuclear civilization. In the first and better known tale, a military officer describes his feelings and duties from extremely deep within a great bomb shelter as the world is gradually demolished above him. In the second the crew of a nuclear submarine threatens to detonate its cargo unless its demands - for sex and money - are met, with farcically exaggerated results. The awful-warning content of MR's novels has perhaps paled with the years, but only because of humanity's survival - pro tem.

   JC

   See also: END OF THE WORLD; HOLOCAUST AND AFTER; ISRAEL.