[1] The novel follows the story of Danny Jordan, a boy who has been moved from the Macleay Valley – in the Mid North Coast area of New South Wales – to Sydney during the Second World War due to the threat of a Japanese invasion.

Danny and his family end up living next door to a violent Communist who takes a disliking to the boy.

"[2] Writing about the novel on its re-issue in 1968 a reviewer in Woroni noted: "Much has been written on the brilliance of Keneally's prose, and he has been hailed as one of the most exciting writers to appear in Australia for many years.

The cover blurb of this edition of The Fear tells us that Keneally has 'a violent imagination for the macabre and horrifying', but that at the same time 'his devils are human.'

"[3] In an interview conducted to coincide with the release of his novel Shame and the Captives in 2013 Susan Wyndham noted: "The Cowra breakout featured briefly – and inaccurately, he says now – in Keneally's second novel, The Fear, which he has described dismissively as the obligatory account of a novelist's childhood.