If there's one book that's moved me, it has to be this one. It's not perhaps the first book you'd pick off the shelf, despite the interesting cover. I picked this book up for £2 in Publishers book clearance, expecting it to be a perhaps vaguely interesting novel with which I could pass the time - what I hadn't banked on was finding this, a book so well-written that it made me cry.

It was written in a time of turmoil, during the Cold War where there was further development of nuclear weapons and competition between the USA and Soviet Union. There was a big threat, at this time, of nuclear attacks to the United Kingdom as they were allied with the USA. Many books were written at this time and many people remember leaflets warning them about nuclear attack being posted through their doors.

Published in 1985 by Louise Lawrence (aka Elizabeth Holden) you may think that it's a book that you needed to be there to understand. Having been born in 1992, I can vouch that this is not the case. Although a nuclear attack is no longer quite so imminent, the increasing number of nuclear weapons across the world leaves us with the question, just what would happen if a nuclear war did occur?

This book is split into three sections, Sarah, Ophelia and Simon, each detailing a separate generation of the Harnden family, to show the aftermath of the nuclear war and the horror it brings.

Sarah The first part of the book is called "Sarah." It is by far the most upsetting of all three. After war has been declared, Sarah hurries home to help her step-mother, Veronica, prepare their home as a nuclear shelter. Catherine, the second youngest child, stays under the table and refuses to touch anything which may have been contaminated, showing survival instinct. As days go by, Veronica loses the will to live leaving Sarah to take charge.

Sarah takes charge of the family and finds that fallout has entered the room via the chimney contaminating their water. They clean the room, but the damage has been done. From this point on, it is inevitable the family will have to die. When I realised this, I began to really empathise with the characters, as they were going through so many things and had tried so hard for nothing, as they struggled to accept what was going to happen to them. Veronica gets radiation sickness and develops sores and cancers. Her hair begins to fall out, and one night she takes an overdose and leaves the house to die at the local church.

Sarah, Catherine and William struggle on alone. Both Sarah and William are fatally ill and eventually Sarah takes Catherine to a new home, to be safe with Johnson, a farmer. Sarah goes home and kisses William for the last time. Both of them take an overdose and she dies by his side.

It was this part of the book that had me in tears. I was so devastated and moved by the traumatic events and the way in which Louise Lawrence describes the deaths of William and Sarah - it is so well written that it's difficult not to cry.

Ophelia Bill (Sarah Catherine and William's father) was pulled aside the day of the war by Erica Kowlanski. They go to a nuclear bunker, where Bill feels distraught having left his family to die alone. Bill has a child with Erica, who they name Ophelia.

As the world begins to re-develop, the army bunker wants to seize a herd of cattle from a new society that is developing. Bill and Dwight Allison (a rebel child of one of the colonels) believe that it is wrong to take their livelihood. They set out accompanied by Ophelia. She doesn't agree with them but they are the people she is closest to and she wishes to go with them.

Bill is re-united with Catherine, who is heavily pregnant with her eighth child. Ophelia is disgusted by Catherine and Johnson's relationship as Johnson is old enough to be her father. She believes they are uncivilised compared to those in the bunker. Ophelia meets her niece, Lilith, who was born with white eyes and pale hairs all over her body, as well as a defect in her vocal chords. Ophelia is annoyed because Lilith seems to pity her, when, in Ophelia's reasoning, Lilith should be the pitied one.

This section ends with Ophelia in tears, trying to decide whether or not she can do as she wants and return to the bunker, as that would mean she would never see Dwight, or her father again, as Lilith smiles at her pityingly.

I didn't like this section of the book as much. It is good, and tackles with issues such as who deserves to live or die, and whether or not it is, even in extreme circumstances right to steal. It deals with Ophelia's close-mindedness and prejudice, leading you to believe that it is the old generation, passed on through teaching, that should be left to die as the only achievement they have made through their immense technology is to destroy it all.

Dwight and Ophelia seem to be used as metaphors for the past generation- despite Dwight's good intentions he gets angry with the soldiers led by his father, who are equally only trying to look after themselves. He doesn't try to further reason - he like the old generation lets anger make his decisions. Is the moral that anger and violence achieve nothing Simon The last part of the book is entitled Simon. Simon is Ophelia's son. He meets Laura, a mutant girl born from the new generation of mutated children due to the radiation. He finds out that this new race, homo-superior, have developed telepathic abilities.

He is disgusted in their appearance at first, but gradually begins to realise that he is the one left behind - it will be them that survive, not him. He begins to wonder if their new skills could be used in conjunction with the old generation's knowledge and technology. He learns that although he cannot change what has happened in the past, he can do something useful with his life and help to make the world a better place. He realises that the war was meant to happen so that Laura and her kind, homo-superior could be born.

Final Comment I believe that this book is a must-read for everyone. Although perhaps a bit upsetting, it has important messages, to do with fate and destiny, as well as how we should look out for each other and not start wars we cannot hope to win. It shows that something positive can come of any situation and is by far the most moving book I have ever read, earning it's place as "favourite" in my mind. I've leant this book to three of my friends who have all agreed that it is fantastically well written.

If you're going to read any book, let it be this one.

By Emma Whitfield