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, ...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.