The Day of the Triffids

Bill Masen works with triffids, strange plants of uncertain origin that grow tall, pull themselves along on three stumpy legs and kill with a venomous sting. They are farmed across the world for their valuable oil, and most people consider them harmless as long as they are kept trimmed. After a triffid stings Bill near the eyes, he spends a week in the hospital with his eyes covered, and so misses the green meteor shower everyone else watched.

When he removes his bandages, London has changed. Almost everyone is blind, and the city quickly falls into chaos. Bill meets Josella Playton, a young writer who also kept her sight, and the two try to work out how to survive. They encounter different groups with very different plans for the future: one wants to build a careful new society, another insists on helping as many blind people as possible, and others simply seize power. As the triffids spread, Bill and Josella retreat to a farmhouse in the countryside and try to build a life while the plants gather around the fences.

Calm, intelligent and quietly frightening. About 256 pages in the Modern Library paperback.