Hachette India

Town Like Alice

Nevil Shute

One of the largest selling love stories A Town Like Alice was an influential romance novel by Nevil Shute.

Told in first person by a solicitor, Noel Strachan, who is the executor of the late James McFadden's estate. After he dies, Noel must locate McFadden's niece, Jean Paget, who is set to inherit his fortune, but, because McFadden didn't believe women were capable of handling their own finances, it is all tied up in a trust until Jean reaches thirty-five. At first glance, Jean Paget is gentle and unassuming. But as Noel gets to know her, an unbelievable tale emerges.

Jean Paget, takes him back to world War II in Malaya where she becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner. After liberation emigrates to Australia to be with him, where she attempts, by investing her substantial inheritance, to generate economic prosperity in a small outback community–to turn it into "a town like Alice”.

A story of quiet courage, determination against all odds, and grasping the opportunity to change others' lives and the world around you for the better.

Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute, whose full name was Nevil Shute Norway, (17 January 1899–12 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from inferences by his employers (Vickers) or fellow engineers that he was "not a serious person“ or from potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels, which included On the Beach and A Town Like Alice. Shute died in Melbourne in 1960 after a stroke.