AustLit

'What would you do if your neighbour suddenly became your enemy? When war turns brother against brother and friend against friend, Petar Popovi must make a choice: join the fighting or turn his back on those he loves. Forced into a war he does not understand, Petar quickly learns he is a man who cannot kill - not even when his own family is lost. Instead, he escapes, rescuing two young children from certain death along the way. To ensure their survival, Petar must reach the Salvation Road, an old smuggler's route that is the only way out of the conflict-ravaged country. But the journey is perilous and long, their enemies are many and their allies are few. In this profoundly moving story of courage, faith and love, this unlikely trio of survivors set out to prove that the human spirit is stronger than the steel of war.'

Source: publisher's blurb

'1975: When bloody war ravages his beloved Portuguese Timor, Cesar da Silva flees with his wife and children from a country in flames. But in their desperate bid for freedom, amidst the chaos and devastation, Cesar's young family becomes separated. Believing his wife and two daughters dead, Cesar finds passage to the Portugal of his heritage and later to Australia.

In occupied Timor, Cesar's wife is alive, but her troubles are far from over. Hunted by a sadistic warlord and with no way to get a message to the outside world, she despairs she will never see her husband again..

1997: More than twenty years later, a young Australian journalist and her photographer are drawn to the killing fields of Timor and discover the terrible suffering of the Timorese people at the hands of a brutal foreign invader. They are compelled to expose the truth to the world, but in their quest for justice, they become entangled in the da Silva family tragedy, placing them all in the gravest of danger...' (From the publisher's website.)