The Persimmon Tree
Courtenay Bryce
 
ISBN-13: 9780670070701
Hardback | 708 pages | Penguin/Viking | $49.95 |

The Persimmon Tree is unashamedly a love story. I've always wanted to write one but until now have been afraid to do so. The reason is simple enough: most men in my experience have very little idea of what really goes on in a woman's heart or head. Now, at the age of 74, I just might know enough and have sufficient courage to write on the subject - the way of a man with a woman, of a woman with a man.

My story is set in the Pacific, although not in the paradise we've always been led to believe exists there. It is 1942 in Java and the Japanese are invading the islands like a swarm of locusts.

I have tried to capture the essence of love - how in a world gone mad with malice and hate, it has the ability to forgive and to heal. As it is in this story, love is always hard earned but, in the end, a most wonderful and necessary emotion. Without love, life for most of us would lack true meaning.

Sincerely,

Bryce Courtenay

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A Recipe for Dreaming is a collection of thoughts and images to make you dream again. Bryce Courtenay's reflections on how essential it is to daydream, and to question, whether it be yourself or the world, provide a challenging and inspiring personal vision. Ann Williams brings the reflections to life with her vivid and incisive illustrations.

Sylvia
Courtenay Bryce
 
ISBN-13: 9780143006992
B Fmt | 498 pages | Penguin | $24.95 |

'I am Sylvia Honeyeater; I think myself born around 1196, and this is the story of my life.'

From master storyteller Bryce Courtenay comes the colourful epic of Sylvia. Late twelfth-century Europe is torn by religious intolerance. Sylvia, with a singing voice that can literally charm the birds out of the trees, and an acute and questioning mind that refuses to accept unreasoned beliefs, embarks on a pilgrimage. She joins the Children's Crusade, bound for the Holy Land.

From a bawdy life as an entertainer in a whorehouse to an austere and frequently cruel existence in a convent, she fights to be true to her destiny. And her mysterious birthmark causes much confusion: can this peasant maid indeed be a chosen messenger?

Sylvia is a tale of adversity, of adventure and crusades, and of a beautiful and gifted woman.

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The Power of One
Courtenay Bryce
 
ISBN-13: 9780143004554 (ISBN-10: 0143004557)
B Fmt | 636 pages | Penguin | $24.95 |

For the young Peekay, to a seven-year-old boy who dreams of being the welterweight champion of the world, the piece of advice given to him by Hoppie Groenewald, boxing champion, is something he will carry with him throughout his life. Born in a South Africa divided by racism & hatred, this small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie & Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for justice . . .

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Tandia is a child of all Africa: half Indian, half African, beautiful & intelligent, she is only sixteen when she is first brutalised by the police. Her fear of the white man leads her to join the black resistance movement, where she trains as a terrorist. With her in the fight for justice is the one white man Tandia can trust, the welterweight champion of the world, Peekay.
 

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In the end, love is more important than everything and it will conquer and overcome anything. Or that’s how Damon saw it, anyway. Damon wanted a book that talked a lot about love.

Damon Courtenay died on the morning of April Fool’s Day. In this tribute to his son, Bryce Courtenay lays bare the suffering behind this young man’s life. Damon’s story is one of lifelong struggle, his love for Celeste, the compassion of family, and a fight to the end for integrity.

A testimony to the power of love, April Fool’s Day is also about understanding: how when we confront our worst, we can become our best.

This life-affirming book will change the way you think.

The Family Frying Pan, blessed with a Russian soul, is no ordinary frying pan. From it Mrs Moses manages to feed the various refugees who are travelling with her across Russia to freedom. In return, each of the group must tell a story around the campfire at night - and out tumble stories of compassion and bravery, of human frailty and, above all, hope. 

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The Night Country is an enchanting and inspiring story from one of Australia's most popular authors, Bryce Courtenay, which draws on the author's childhood in Africa. Towards the end of the Great Depression a young boy goes with his sister to stay at a farm while their mother is ill. There, during a scorching African summer, he witnesses a trial and punishment which will forever remind him of white men's cruelty to black people. Beautifully packaged with striking watercolour illustrations, The Night Country is a fable for all ages - a powerful account of the strength that lives within us all.

Jessica is based on the inspiring true story of a young girl's fight for justice against tremendous odds

A tomboy, Jessica is the pride of her father, as they work together on the struggling family farm. One quiet day, the peace of the bush is devastated by a terrible murder. Only Jessica is able to save the killer from the lynch mob - but will justice prevail in the courts?

Nine months later, a baby is born... with Jessica determined to guard the secret of the father's identity. The rivalry of Jessica and her beautiful sister for the love of the same man will echo throughout their lives - until finally the truth must be told.

Set in the harsh Australian bush against the outbreak of World War I, this novel is heartbreaking in its innocence, and shattering in its brutality.


'A deserved best seller, based on fact, a story told with heartbreaking honesty.'
The Australian Women's Weekly

A Vietnam Vet returns to an Australia that regards him as a mercenary guilty of war crimes

Thommo begins to develop all kinds of physical and mental problems, and thinks it must only be him until he finds that he is not alone. Ten mates, all who remain of his platoon, are affected the same way.

Now Thommo and his mates are eleven angry men out for revenge. They rope in an ex-Viet Cong with ‘special skills’ and his own secret agenda. They’re the ‘Dirty Dozen’, just like the movie. Only it’s real life, and they’re so screwed up they couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.

That is, until a woman of character steps in. Wendy’s infant daughter is dying and needs a transplant. She set out to mould this bunch of ex-jungle fighters into a unit that will fight for justice, by fair means or foul.

Hell hath no fury . . .

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A story of the power of love and the triumph of the human spirit against the odds

In a small town like any other small towns around Australia live the Maloneys. They are a fifth-generation Australian family of Irish Catholic descent who are struggling to reach the first rung of the social ladder. The Maloneys are a family you won't forget: a strong mother, a father broken by war, three boys and two girls, one of whom has an illegitimate daughter. Each of their lives is changed forever by the four fires – passion, religion, warfare and fire itself.

’Not since writing The Power of One have I felt this close to a book.’ Bryce Courtenay

The story of a drunk, a boy and a cat

Billy O'Shannessy, once a prominent barrister, is now on the street where he sleeps on a bench outside the State Library. Above him on the window sill rests a bronze statue of Matthew Flinders' cat, Trim. Ryan is a ten-year-old, a near-street kid heading for the usual trouble. The two form an unlikely bond. Through telling Ryan the story of Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia as seen through Trim's eyes, Billy is drawn deeply into Ryan's life and into the Sydney underworld.

A modern-day story of friendship and redemption by an internationally bestselling author.

Brother Fish is an Australian saga spanning eighty years and four continents.

Inspired by real events, Bryce Courtenay's new novel tells the story of three people from vastly differing backgrounds. All they have in common is a tough beginning in life. Jack McKenzie is a harmonica player, soldier, dreamer and small-time professional fisherman from a tiny island in Bass Strait. Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan is a strong-willed woman hiding from an ambiguous past in Shanghai. Larger than life, Private Jimmy Oldcorn was once a street kid and leader of a New York gang. Together, they reap a vast and not always legitimate fortune from the sea.

Brother Fish is an inspiring human drama of three lives brought together and changed forever by the extraordinary events of recent history. But most of all it is about the power of friendship and love.

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From Bryce Courtenay comes a new novel about Africa. The time is 1939. White South Africa is a deeply divided nation with many of the Afrikaner people fanatically opposed to the English.

The world is also on the brink of war and South Africa elects to fight for the Allied cause against Germany. Six-year-old Tom Fitzsaxby finds himself in The Boys Farm, an orphanage in a remote town in the high mountains, where the Afrikaners side fiercely with Hitler's Germany.

Tom's English name proves sufficient for him to be ostracised, marking him as an outsider. And so begin some of life's tougher lessons for the small, lonely boy. Like the whitethorn, one of Africa's most enduring plants, Tom learns how to survive in the harsh climate of racial hatred. Then a terrible event sends him on a journey to ensure that justice is done. On the way, his most unexpected discovery is love.

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Ikey Solomon is in the business of thieving and he's very good at it. Ikey's partner in crime is his mistress, the forthright Mary Abacus, until misfortune befalls them. They are parted & each must make the harsh journey from thriving nineteenth century London to the convict settlement of Van Diemen's Land. In the backstreets & dives of Hobart Town, Mary learns the art of brewing & builds The Potato Factory, where she plans a new future. But her ambitions are threatened by Ikey's wife, Hannah, her old enemy. The two women raise their separate families, one legitimate & the other bastard. As each woman sets out to destroy the other, the families are brought to the edge of disaster.

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