A town like Alice / Nevil Shute.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the hugely acclaimed author of On the Beach -- a tale of love and war that follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback. * "Entertaining ... Dramatic ... Shute is a natural and effective story-teller." -- The New York Times

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. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. But it turns out that they have a gift for her as well: the news that the young Australian soldier, Joe Harmon, who had risked his life to help the women, had miraculously survived. Jean's search for Joe leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.