The central event of the novel is an extended atrocity of the Burma Railway death railway as it is being constructed by hundreds of thousands of slaves, including 13,000 Australians. Dorrigo Evans as a colonel and a surgeon, is the acknowledged leader of the Australian prisoners after the fall of Singapore.
At every opportunity Dorrigo Evans tried to reason with the Japanese to improve conditions for the Australians. Flanagan wants nobody to be under any illusions about what went on and in this he succeeds brilliantly. Group members had widely differing about this book. Judith Borthwick