What is Ashes and Sakura about?

Ashes and Sakura is a historical reconstruction novel set in the aftermath of the Second World War. It follows Australian soldiers and nurses serving in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, and the families they left behind in country New South Wales. Through intersecting stories of Tom Davis, his sister Evelyn, and the Italian prisoner of war she loves, the novel explores how ordinary people sought meaning, redemption, and connection in the ruins of war.