‘A Town Like Alice’ by Nevil Shute

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

When two bookish friends (independent of each other) recommended Nevil Shute, I decided to pay attention. And I was not disappointed! The English author, who later moved to Australia, wrote books in the early to mid 1900’s. This one was published in 1950.

It is interesting to note that Nevil Shute Norway was an aeronautical engineer who shortened his name to protect his engineering career from those who would not consider him to be a “serious person” if they found out he also wrote novels. His engineering skills must have informed his novel writing–this is a well crafted story and I loved it.

I’m grateful for the nudges I got to try this author. Written decades ago, I found this a compelling and easy-to-read classic. An adventurous story narrated by a stodgy British solicitor was unexpected, but turned out to be a stroke of genius! I will definitely be reading more by Nevil Shute.

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. Jean’s travels lead 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.

Based on the true story of Dutch women and children captured by the Japanese in Sumatra, Shute met the strong, courageous woman who led the group through the jungle, and wanted to honour her with this story based on real events.