Ordeal — Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute wrote this prophetic novel just before the start of the Second World War. In it he imagines the devastation that results from an aerial bomb attack on Southampton that destroys the city's infrastructure and leaves the inhabitants at the mercy of cholera and further assaults. Against this dramatic backdrop, Shute grippingly chronicles the trials and tribulations of the Corbett family as they struggle to get to safety.