THE BRIDE OF ALMOND TREE

Review by Samuel Bernard. Published in Good Reading Magazine

Hillman’s prose entices devouring. His latest novel The Bride of Almond Tree is a heart-warming story of love and politics set in the shadows of post-World War II Australia. It teaches us once again that love conquers all, even when your politics, race or religion don’t quite align.

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When Quaker Wesley Cunningham arrives home to Almond Tree from his non-combative role during World War II, his plans to settle down with a wife and build a family home is thrown into disarray when the woman he has fallen for has another love, the Soviet Union. The intelligent yet stubborn Beth Hardy doesn’t believe in marriage, and instead has decided to devote her life to the communist cause. Wes doesn’t give up on her though. His love and support for Beth carries through every twist and turn their journey takes them. A parallel narrative intertwines their story, highlighting the power that love has on individuals in times of great hardship. Wesley’s sister Patty, also a Quaker, is serving as a nurse in Hiroshima months after the nuclear bomb ‘Little Boy’ devastated the city. There she meets a Japanese doctor and falls deeply in love with him, despite their country’s conflicts.

Hillman’s characters have a depth that rivals any in the current crop of Australian historical fiction. The Bride of Almond Tree transports readers with a beautiful sense of place, whether it be inside a Soviet prison, ground zero in Hiroshima, or the small town of Almond Tree in country Australia.

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Hillman has delivered one of the best historical fiction novels of 2021. I simply could not put this down. He is a masterful Australian storyteller.