{"product_id":"2026200016243-secondhand-ruined-city","title":"Ruined City","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Fair\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Some moisture damage\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Previous owner,Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the shadow of the Great Depression, Ruined City presents Henry Warren, a wealthy and powerful London banker whose comfortable world collapses around him following a financial scandal — forcing him to confront the moral bankruptcy of his privileged existence. Cast adrift from his former life, Warren turns his attention to Sharples, a derelict shipbuilding town in the north of England where unemployment has gutted an entire community, and embarks on a daring, morally complex scheme to resurrect the town's dying shipyard and restore dignity to its desperate men.\n\nNevil Shute — the pen name of Nevil Shute Norway — brings to this 1938 novel the same meticulous, engineering-minded precision and quiet emotional intelligence that defined his celebrated career. Ruined City is a searching examination of class, conscience, and redemption, set against the stark backdrop of inter-war Britain's industrial decline. Shute's prose is characteristically understated yet deeply affecting, chronicling one man's transformation from moral cowardice to genuine heroism with a subtlety that rewards the patient reader. For anyone who has ever wondered whether a single act of will can redeem a wasted life, this novel offers a quietly devastating answer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49342774444251,"sku":"2026200016243-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/6699e7b8-689e-42c5-a0e8-6e86b2a9d4dc.png?v=1790049125","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016243-secondhand-ruined-city","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}