Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns, first published in 1954, follows sisters Emma and Hattie in an isolated English village whose lives are upended by a series of catastrophic events.

When devastating floods strike the countryside, they are followed by a mysterious illness that spreads through the community, claiming lives and driving others, including the local miller and butcher, to take their own.

Raised by their meek father and domineering grandmother, the sisters watch their sheltered world collapse into hysteria and tragedy.

Blending innocence and dark experience with a distinctly fairy tale sensibility, Comyns's novel has been described as a tragicomic gem and an eerily resonant pandemic parable.