Safe Return Doubtful

First published in 1954 (my version a reissue from the Dorothy project in 2010), Comyns’s short novel is a memorable one, forcing itself into parts of the mind rarely exercised.
Set in a rural village in what I guess might be the 1930s, she introduces her cast of characters in the first chapter, as a house and farm flooded in an almost surreal scene of buoyant furniture and drowning animals slipping from life in surreal fashion. Though the waters recede, the imagery doesn’t.
The folk of the village are soon afflicted by a plague of madness, which adds to the surreality but has a logical explanation. Amidst the turmoil, the more usual village subplots exist; bickering in the pub, illicit affairs and friends mumbling behind the backs of friends. The apparent chaos may at first seem like a playful farce, but as the reaction of the villagers emerges, the atmosphere becomes cold and quite horrific. That’s Comyns of course, twisting a ostensibly innocent scenario into the exact opposite.
There’s so much in this smart and disorientating work to enjoy, from the occasional moments of wry humour blended into the sense of dislocation, to its extremely apt title – which of these two fates await each character?