The Vietnam War is sometimes termed a forgotten war. Neglected by Australian literature until relatively recently, it was the war that most of us wanted to forget. The last and most prolonged proxy battle of the Cold War, it saw Australians become increasingly divided. Should the country be at war at all, or had it been manipulated into involvement by its political leaders? Did people have the right to take to the streets and protest about the conflict? And just how far was the security intelligence organization prepared to go to silence the protesters?

Alison Booth’s new novel, A Distant Land, is set in 1971, towards the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. 

Back in 1957, Zidra Vincent met Jim Cadwallader for the first time. Fourteen years later, their bond of friendship - forged in childhood in the beautiful coastal town of Jingera - is still strong. But is friendship all they dream of?

Jim is now a respected war correspondent in Phnom Penh, reporting on the Vietnam War as it spills over into Cambodia. But he has plans to come home for good, because there is something important he wants to tell Zidra.  Meanwhile Zidra is an ambitious reporter at the Sydney Morning Chronicle, and the seeds of a major story have just landed in her lap. Life is looking good, if only she could share it with the man who knows her best.

Then, while at work in the newsroom one day, Zidra catches sight of a wire service bulletin. A story out of Cambodia. The body of a Western journalist has been discovered near Phnom Penh. And her world collapses around her…

A Distant Land is the final volume of the Jingera trilogy. It can also be read as a self-contained work. Publication will be in June 2012.