Ok, so this is a long shot, but I'm searching for this book that I read a several years ago. It was a story starting with nuclear fallout. It was kind of split two ways..there were the people who survived outside, and the people who suvived in this huge underground bunker. The people outside eventually became "mutants" adapting to the new world. They became hairy, and some other stuff I can't remember. The bunker people I think eventually ended up dying out, because the machinery wasn't holding up anymore. The book takes place over a few generations.
I really loved the book when I read it, and I was wondering if anyone else had read it, and knows what it was called. I can't remember where I got it from to read it, but it might have been an old school library, so I can't just go look for it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Was this about a girl who ended up stowing out of the compound, to see what was outside, because the leaders of the bunker said that there was only death outside and it turned out there were people alive outside the bunker but they were malformed, and living like scavangers, so she painted a picture of a lady she had met with only one leg, and it caused an uproar?

That sounds the same. The part about the girl stowing out and such sounds familier, but I don't remember the painting. I really can't remember much, so it could be it.

It's clearly within the science fiction genre, so you've tapped into a community of fanatic bibliophiles. Log onto a sci-fi BBS (not ours, a dedicated one) and see if anyone there can help you.

Although there would be no harm in posting your question in the Sci-Fi section of SciForums as long as you're here.