The Far Country (Vintage Classics)

This book begins really well, you get a very clear snapshot into Australia during the early 1950s when Britain was struggling with food rationing and shortage. For those who skipped the UK after the war and headed for the colonies, this book might remind you of those times. The story gets more interesting as en encounter between a Czech doctor who doesn't have a licence to practice medicine in Oz and a girl, who has just popped out from the UK for a visit. She winds up having to be nurse for him as he deals with two catastrophic accidents in the absence of a local qualified Australian doctor. Tension mounts because although he saves one life, another is lost and he stands to get himself deported. And then the book kind of falls to bits, or did for me, as the love relationship takes over and becomes gooey with everything dropping neatly into place. It doesn't stop it being a good read, but if you're not keen on romances, you can put this book down a little halfway because it's all too obvious what the outcome is. That said, it is a Shute story and he can handle a pen.

This could well be the best of Nevil Shute's 21 or so stories, which is saying something.First published in 1952, the book contrasts, in a very human way, on the one hand the misery and privations of post-war England with, on the other hand, the glowing and very real opportunities that are available with directed effort in Australia, as seen through the eyes of, respectively, the young English girl Jennifer Morton and the rather older Czech doctor Carl Zlinter, who has emigrated to Australia and is serving his assigned first two years in a lumber camp in a pleasant country part of Victoria, roughly at a distance to the west of Melbourne.So the story has worn well, perhaps especially so when read in the conditions of present-day England !Nevil Shute is in my opinion a great story-teller, who has the gift of including a great deal of relevant and interesting detail of the localities, personalities and action in a story that is fully believable and really gripping, without any waste of words. All these features are fully present in this book 'The Far Country'.To say the book is un-put-down-able is not really an exaggeration, because the book draws the reader to want to see how the plot and sub-plots will work out, and the informed and interesting detail which characterises Nevil Shute's books is fully present in this one.But don't just read this little review ... read the book. You will not be disappointed.

I did enjoy this book however I knew what the ending would be. I can’t agre that this book was better than a town like Alice at all. Th characters didn’t engage in ththe same way and the story was not as engaging but enjoyable all the same. I intend to read more Shute novels as I’m a but fed up with other books on the market at the moment and you cannot beat a good classic.

A good read. Interesting to read about life in England and Australia at that time.

Read this years ago, and found it very interesting to reread and see how attitudes and indeed the world have changed over the years.

How I love this story. It was broadcast on daytime TV as a 2 part mini-series back in the late 1980s, I remember watching it as I was feeding my son (now 24!) and being captivated by the gentle brave main character played by Michael York. I never forgot it, which will give you an idea of how impactful the story was - wrapped up in the storyline are issues such as misconception, prejudice, frustration and unfairness but though it all dignity and integrity shine through like a beacon, and whilst it's a massive tear-jerker there's a deep sense of satisfaction at the end that people good people really do make the world a better place. I loved it then, and on finding it and watching it again 20+ years later, I love it just as much. If you're an old softy like me, and enjoyed things like The Thorn Birds, The Notebook etc, you'll enjoy this too.

Typical Shute - painstaking record of emigration from post war England and Czechoslovakiato Victoria AustraliaLeading to a slow moving romance which may seem stilted in today's faster moving world but held my attention through the historical detail-pre TV

Differences between England and Australia in the immediate post war and one girl who is given the chance to sample Australia and its people. Lovely story.