A Town Like Alice

This classic novel is a heart-rending story of human fortitude set in the jungles of Malaya during the Japanese occupation, where a group of European women and children struggles to survive on a forced march.

Nevil Shute’s most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.

Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. But it turns out that they have a gift for her as well: the news that the young Australian soldier, Joe Harmon, who had risked his life to help the women, had miraculously survived.

Jean’s search for Joe leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.

“Entertaining. . . . Dramatic. . . . Shute is a natural and effective story-teller.” -The New York Times

“A ripping tale of budding romance and grace under pressure.” -The Times (London)

"A harrowing, exciting, and in the end very satisfying war romance." -Harper's

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