Historical fiction book · Curated
A Town Like Alice
Nevil Shute · historical fiction
Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman working in Malaya when the Japanese invade, is marched for months with a party of women and children, and an Australian prisoner, Joe Harman, is punished for helping them. Nevil Shute’s 1950 novel is World War II romance historical fiction of the years after—an inheritance in 1948, the news that Joe survived, and the outback settlement she sets out to turn into a town like Alice Springs.
Why read it: A widely searched war romance—the Shute title readers look up by name (published in the U.S. as The Legacy), and an Australian counterpart to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin already on the shelf.
About this historical novel
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is historical fiction set around 1941–1948 in the World War II era / Cold War period with key settings including Malaya, Alice Springs, Willstown, Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman working in Malaya when the Japanese invade, is marched for months with a party of women and children, and an Australian prisoner, Joe Harman, is punished for helping them. Nevil Shute’s 1950 novel is World War II romance historical fiction of the years after—an inheritance in 1948, the news that Joe survived, and the outback settlement she sets out to turn into a town like Alice Springs.
On HisFic we tag it under 2. Historical romance and 6. Adventure & epic so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include war, captivity, love, survival, and the outback. A widely searched war romance—the Shute title readers look up by name (published in the U.S. as The Legacy), and an Australian counterpart to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin already on the shelf.
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Plot summary
Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman working in Malaya when the Japanese invade, is marched for months with a party of women and children, and an Australian prisoner, Joe Harman, is punished for helping them. Nevil Shute’s 1950 novel is World War II romance historical fiction of the years after—an inheritance in 1948, the news that Joe survived, and the outback settlement she sets out to turn into a town like Alice Springs. A widely searched war romance—the Shute title readers look up by name (published in the U.S. as The Legacy), and an Australian counterpart to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin already on the shelf.
Subgenres
Eras
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Regions & places
Asia · Oceania
Malaya · Alice Springs · Willstown · Australia · the outback
Themes
- war
- captivity
- love
- survival
- the outback
Tags
romance · war · classic