A Town Like Alice
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4.4 • 180 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the hugely acclaimed author of On the Beach—a tale of love and war that follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback. • “Entertaining ... Dramatic ... Shute is a natural and effective story-teller.” —The New York Times
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.
Customer Reviews
Makes you want to cheer
I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to. The main character, our heroine, is at once bold and charming. The tale is told with color and detail poignantly related so your heart is involved from the very beginning. It's a bit predictable, but I consider the flaw to be an artifact of the era of its publication.
Such an inspiring read!!
This story has so much going for it. An understated love reaches across three continents, bringing one woman back to life after being drained by her WWII experience of walking in a group of women and children from village to village across Malay. Little did this woman, Jean, know that, with each stop, she was acquiring skills that would transform villages and townships, allowing her to bring new life to hundreds.
In its way, this book is very similar to ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’, a novella that has been animated and is available online.
For many years, I wished I could watch the marvelous Australian miniseries of ‘A Town Like Alice’, and I found it on YouTube. It is in color, and has several episodes. The B&W film starring Virginia McKenna is also on YouTube as well, and quite good, though if I were to choose one, I’d go for the miniseries (at least first).