I won't spoil the book by telling what happens next, but there are quite a few surprises in store. After hearing all she endured, he could hardly be more surprised when Jean tells him her plans for the money: to return to Malaya. The novel opens with the narrator, a solicitor, tracking down Jean to tell her that she has just come into an inheritance, and it is to Noah that Jean tells her story. Under such an unlikely circumstances, one wouldn't expect to fall in love, but we do sense that it is happening to Jean when she means a resourceful Australian named Joe Harmon. The hardships that the women and children endured during their trek to one nonexistent prison camp after another and the alternating kindness and inhumanity of their captors kept me reading (well, listening this was an audiobook) at a rapid pace. Initially, I was totally captivated by this story of Jean Padgett, a young English woman working in Malaya who became a Japanese prisoner of war.

Another similar book set in the same time period is Empire of the Sun, which is another great read. I remember seeing it on TV a decade or so ago. This part of the war (malaysia) is often overlooked because it involved the British more than America. English by birth she is captured in Malaysia during WWII as must march hundreds of miles with other women as prisoners of the Japanese Army. Jean Paget shows both courage, wisdom, and dedication. I would also recommend this to Teens, especially girls since the major character and heroine is a woman. Another book I found very similar was the Potato Factory which is another great book set in Australia and England. It will be enjoyed by both men and women. It does start a little slow but picks up the pace. The writing is excellent as well as the narration. It is really so much a war novel, but a love story. Although this was written in 1950 shortly after WWII, it still a great story.

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute