A Town like Alice by Nevil Shute

 #15 of 54 BBC Big Read

Spoiler Alert

It is an extraordinary tale of women prisoners of war who walked all over Malaysia for hundreds of miles during the Second World War. There was no camp for women prisoners. They were just a nuisance for the Japanese soldiers and none of the commanders want to deal with the situation. They are marched one place to another and henceforth in the scorching heats. These are essentially white women who are not accustomed to physical labour. More accustomed to desk jobs and ayahs for their biddings. Here they are dealing with Malaria, dengue and dysentery. Trying to keep up strength to look after the children. If this is extraordinary, what follows is more incredible.

Jean, a prisoner of war, meets Joe, an Australian prisoner of war, truck driver. Joe helps the ladies by stealing chickens and punished brutally for this.

Six years later, Jean goes on an epic journey to Malaysia to help build a well in a community that helped them. And from there to Australian outback looking for Joe. Jean makes it her life mission to transform a Small town into a desirable destination for young men and women. Transforming a dying community to a thriving one. 

Underneath all this struggle, this is a romance of how far love could take us and how it could transform everything.

Pin It