To Love a Sunburnt Country (Jackie French, HarperCollins)

Jackie French has created another magnificent story in To Love a Sunburnt Country, which follows an Australian woman during World War II. The narrative imagines the future of the Banjo Paterson poem ‘Clancy of the Overflow’, where Clancy defies society to marry the Indigenous woman he loves. French’s heroine is his granddaughter Nancy Clancy, who shares her grandfather’s defiant spirit. She wears jodhpurs, runs around barefoot and goes droving. When Nancy visits her brother Ben in Malaya, where he lives with his wife and baby, their lives are soon disrupted as Ben joins the army and goes north to fight. Events escalate and soon Nancy finds herself in terrible trouble. As well as exploring Nancy’s experiences in a prisoner of war camp and Ben’s as a soldier, this book paints a realistic picture of life in a small Australian town during World War II. To Love a Sunburnt Country is very moving and very powerful. I cried at times, and at other times I simply had to put it down. But I couldn’t stay away. This book should enjoy a wide readership but it is not recommended for younger readers, as there are graphic descriptions of torture and death. 

Jessica Broadbent is a trained librarian and former bookseller

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Category: Reviews