Read on the Kindle.

I didn't know whether I would enjoy this, as it has been a while (well, 30 years!) since I read any Neville Shute, but I discovered that a lot of this one was set around the places I grew up, and decided to give it a go.

I found it surprisingly gripping, despite my pacifism. About half of the book deals with the build-up to the D-Day landings at the end of WWII, specifically around the area of Beaulieu, Exbury and Lepe in Hampshire, England. It's told in the first person by a pilot called Alan Duncan, although most of the action concerns his brother's fiancee, a WREN called Janet Prentice.

I don't want to give spoilers, but I found the story totally convincing (Shute took part in the D-Day landings himself, and makes the whole thing very immediate and vivid). It is part historical novel, part mystery, part psychological study, and I read it very quickly. It was an unexpectedly absorbing read.

Nevil Shute is a brilliant storyteller, and this is another great WWII story. Alan Duncan finally comes home to his family farm in Australia, quite a few years after the war, damaged physically and emotionally, and finds a new tragedy in his house. A maid committed suicide the night before he arrived, and he sets out to discover her story. This is less technical, more character driven than some of his books, so more to my taste, and a moving look at the impact the war had on people, during and afterwards.

A wonderful read with characters who quickly become very real. As it says on the back of my edition: “A deeply moving story of friendship and enduring love … told with a compassionate brilliance.”

Alan is returning home to the farm in Australia for the first time in 5 years. On the day he is returning, the household has been disrupted by the apparent suicide of the maid.

I enjoy Neville Shute. Yes they're books of a time and write about a society which is not today, with values that can, at best, be described as uncomfortable.

But he writes a wonderful story, with well developed characters. I very much enjoyed this.

I finished this one a few days ago but because I am travelling I am not getting to the internet so often. But I am in an internet cafe in Himeji just now so I thought I would write something.

I did enjoy this book but not nearly as much as on the beach. It had too much military stuff in the story which Im really not into, and the human aspect, although good wasnt anything special.

Its about two Australians who fought in the second world war, and also about the WREN (british female in the army) they both kind of fell in love with. Its a kind of sad story, but not as good as I was expecting. Maybe I should release it in Japan????

2016 note - review from 2007 bookcrossing journal.

REALLY hated this ending...If he showed up on my doorstep I would throat punch him.... #sorrynotsorry

An achingly sad novel, whose conclusion is known and inevitable from the first page. Yet it never ceases to be compelling.