AustLit

Paradise Road is based on the true stories of hundreds of English, Australian, and American women imprisoned in Sumatra by the Japanese as the latter swept through South-east Asia in 1942.

The narrative begins with Japanese fighter planes sinking the ship on which the women are attempting to flee Singapore. The captured prisoners face extreme cruelty and hardship, and are forced to seek any means for survival. Two of the women, Adrienne Partier and Margaret Drummond, conceive the idea of forming a choir. Both are both trained musicians, and Margaret has memorised many scores. She writes them down in children's notebooks, and dozens of women, in constant danger of extreme punishment or even execution, conspire to practice surreptitiously. When the choir performs its first number, 'Largo' from Dvorak's New World Symphony, the voices transform the dense tropical air with sweet, haunting strains and the guards, who have come to break up the illegal gathering, sit and listen with awe.