Loved this book, brought to life particularly well in audiobook form read by Neil Hunt.

First of all, this is an old book, set during and just after WWII and written not too long after that. So there is a lot that's dated about it, including most obviously racial segregation, the belief in the inherent superiority of whites, and cultural standards. The author doesn't come across as racist (in fact his portrayal of the Malaysians is quite sympathetic) but it's a book of its times and represents generally accepted attitudes of that time.

That said, it's the story of perseverance, personal strength and morality, a love story, a war story, and just a general story of the day to day trials and rewards of human existence. It's mainly told by Noel, a lawyer responsible for administering a trust fund inherited after the war by Jean Padget, who had spent many years as a captive of the Japanese in Malaysia. Through his eyes we learn of Jean's war experiences, and then follow her journey afterwards. During the war, she and her party had crossed paths with some Australian prisoners, who helped them get food and much-needed medical supplies but are punished severely for it when the Japanese find out. Eventually the female prisoners are permitted to finish the war working in the rice fields of a small Malaysian village but they never cross paths with the Australians again.

After the war, when Jean receives her inheritance, she decides to return to Malaysia to use some of the money to build a well in the village in Malaysia that had been her home in captivity for the last few years of the war, to thank them. While she is there arranging this, she gets news of the Australians, and in particular of Joe Harmon, who she believed had been killed because of the help he gave them. Learning he's still alive, she decides to try and make contact with him again to make sure he doesn't need anything (she assumes he is probably now an invalid from his injuries, and feels responsible). This takes her out to Australia for the second half of the book, and we receive updates through her regular letters to Noel. Without going into spoilery detail I'll just say it's a portrait of several friendships - in particular Noel, Jean, and Joe - as well as a portrait of the suffering of war and the hardships of life in the rural Australian outback at the time. I don't know enough about Queensland slang of that time to know if the author is accurately portraying Joe's speech or if it's just an exaggerated caricature (he seems to say "oh my word" about every other sentence) but at least the audiobook narrator managed a creditable accent that made this seem less repetitive than it probably looked in print.

So yeah, a sweet, historically interesting, and uplifting novel that I'd highly recommend unless you are particularly annoyed by either Australian slang or historically accurate racism.