Ruined City, by Nevil Shute

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Damn, but Nevil Shute can tell a story.

That’s about all I’m prepared to say about this one; if I told you much of the plot, then I’d have to shoot you, so that my having told you about it wouldn’t spoil your reading of it. Many thanks to Ian Hamet, Benevolent Misanthrope, for the loan of this one.

5 thoughts on “Ruined City, by Nevil Shute”

  1. That’s all we get?! I already know he can tell a story, and this is one I don’t have, nor have I heard of it. Just a tiny smidge of a synopsis?

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  2. Well, OK. The setting is England during the Great Depression. The protagonist is the head of a London bank, the descendant of a long line of bankers. He views his job as the safe investment of the depositor’s money rather than as the revitalization of depressed towns and companies (and appropriately so). But then he has some experiences in a town which lost its shipyard five years before…and decides to see what he can do to bring it back to life. There’s a girl involved, naturally, and some moral issues I’m still pondering. How’s that?

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  4. Great book; just finished reading it moments ago (and was trawling the web for more information about it). I heard of it somewhere recently and interlibrary loan delivered it up today. Very different from his others (no airplanes at all!), although the protagonist has the same sweet morality, hard-working ethic as so many of Shute’s characters. (My favorite is “Trustee from the Toolroom.”)
    “Ruined City” was the English title; in the U.S. it was published as “Kindling.” Unless it was the other way around.
    Shute fans — why aren’t there more of us? — will enjoy!

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  5. Yeah, “Ruined City” is the English title, so Ian assures me.

    I don’t know why he’s not brought back into print more often; I’ve not read anything by him that I’ve disliked.

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