Nevil Shute’s most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.

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.

內維爾•舒特(1899—1960)，英國作傢，航空工程師。他齣生於英國，曾是航空工程師，會駕駛飛機，參與設計和製造過著名的R100飛艇，二戰時在倫敦從事秘密的海軍工作，戰後移民澳大利亞。寫小說是他的業餘愛好，但獲得瞭極大的成功。在二十世紀五六十年代，他是世界上最暢銷的小說傢之一。他喜歡把航空知識和戰時經曆寫進小說中，他的作品風格簡潔、明晰，故事性強。主題涉及反戰、愛情等。故事的敘述者往往是一個局外人。他一生所著小說二十餘部，主要作品有《海濱》、《像愛麗絲的小鎮》、《花衣吹笛手》及《來自工具間的受托人》等。內維爾•舒特有生之年賣齣瞭1500萬冊書。

葉雷，廣東珠海人，成長於海邊小鎮，喜愛文學，尤其中國古典文學。曾任職於北京第二外國語學院，講授英語和中國文化課程。現在澳門大學進修。