Fishing for Stars

By: Bryce Courtenay

Narrated by: Humphrey Bower

Length: 22 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Simultaneous release of the sequel to the best-selling The Persimmon Tree.

Nicholas Duncan is a semi-retired shipping magnate who resides in idyllic Beautiful Bay in Indonesia, where he is known as the old patriarch of the islands. He is grieving the loss of his beautiful Eurasian wife, Anna, and is suffering for the first time from disturbing flashbacks to WWII, the scene of their first meeting and early love. His other wartime lover is the striking Marg Hamilton, a powerful and influential political player in Australia who has remained close to Nick. Marg suspects Nick is suffering the onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and organises for a specialist to meet with him in Sydney. But when they meet, Tony Freedman stirs long-buried emotions in Nick and the two men don't hit it off.

Nick leaves in an explosion of anger and finds himself in hospital after being hit by a car. Tony visits and encourages Nick to write as a form of therapy - to write about Anna. So he sets about writing about the woman who has inspired him since his late teens, and in doing so draws us into the compelling tale of the life he has lived post war-hero days building a shipping empire, navigating international corruption, supporting his wife's third-world education crusade and loving the women who inspire him. Set in the exotic locale of the spice islands during the excitement of post-war prosperity and possibility, and driven by strong, colourful characters, this book is truly epic in scope. Is it possible for a man to love two women?

©2013 Christine Courtenay; 2008 Bryce Courtenay (P)2008 Bolinda Publishing

Read them all

I have now read many of Bryce Courtenay books beginning with The Power Of One. I'm hooked.

Not as good as The Persimmon Tree

Narrator's performance is amazing which kept me from turning it off. As close as I have ever come to DNF. A few chapters in, I started rooting for Nick to run, run, run from his ridiculously dysfunctional relationship with Anna. I suppose the reader is supposed to feel sympathetic toward her because she had has damaging and truly terrible past experiences. But at some point, the character just becomes unbearably hardened and self interested to evoke the sympathy that the writer seeks. I liked The Persimmon Tree and was disappointed in this sequel.

Dragged a bit due to details

I’ve loved all this writer’s books except this one. The whole subplot of Anna’s issue was completely unnecessary as was much of the detail surrounding it. I also didn’t understand why Duncan’s character would even like, let alone continue to love, Anna after some of what she had done. It did not seem to fit who he was and I didn’t buy it. Overall it was interesting but a couple hours too long and too far into the weeds.

Boring, Disappointing, Unreal Clear to the End

This book gets 5 stars because it is Courtenay. That said, I am disappointed and confused. I was not ready for Australian history, much less Indonesia or the Japanese mafia or the birth of the Australian Green party. Gosh, this book has something for everyone! I have trouble believing that a heroin addict can stay beautiful for years on end. Neither woman is all that devoted to the man because neither married him or even lived with him fulltime. Maybe I'm old-fashioned for wanting legal marriage with full penetration and maybe even babies -- and the other stuff just for fun once in a while. And I certainly don't consider fame and fortune and designer clothes a fair substitute for not achieving some kind of normal family life. Politically I sided with Marg, the animals and old growth. As for Anna, I expected healing for her! Sure she was sitting on a shitload of bad stuff, but many people manage to move on. I enjoyed the unabridged audio version of Kiana Davenport's masterpiece Song of the Exile about comfort women of the Japanese and loved it. It is about enduring and surviving; that book helped me heal my own difficulties at the time. So my attention was indeed held by some of the insights about the Japanese. I appreciate the research. And I loved some of the creative philanthropy in the book, i.e., managing a new life for the little artist who was officially dead. However, much of the book sounded more like BBC radio news than an exciting novel. Perhaps Bryce rushed to finish this book. Having Saffron do great things in the last few minutes is not my idea of a happy ending. Nick should have bailed from both of those relationships and gotten himself a proper wife. I still love this author.

Interesting

Where does Fishing for Stars rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Among the best

What did you like best about this story?

It completed "The Persimon Tree"

Have you listened to any of Humphrey Bower’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Have listened to many and this one ranks with the best

Any additional comments?

Love the combination of Bryce Courtenay & Humphrey Bower

Love it! Fantastic!

For me this is a type of book that always sits in your mind. Incredible story, I fell in love with the main characters in the book 1 and it was interesting to follow their story in the sequel. Can't stop. The narration is excellent! Highly recommend.

Consuming, Spicy, Historical

Would you listen to Fishing for Stars again? Why?

Highly recommend Fishing for Stars as the plot intrigues then consumes.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fishing for Stars?

The character, Anna, held up against injustice imposed by the Japanese. Love her strength, power and dignity.

Which scene was your favorite?

Anna meeting with the Japanese boat dealers in Japan.

Any additional comments?

Bryce Courtney + Humphrey Bower = Symbiotic Relationship. 'Persimmon Tree' and sequel 'Fishing for Stars' is a must read that will not disappoint. Bryce Courtney's research is flawless--love his character's imperfection,

A Sequel for Fans Only

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would condense the content, a lot of the story from The Persimmon Tree is repeated and re-repeated far too many times in this book. There are a lot of cliches and editorial misses that should have been excluded and detract from the telling of this sequel.

What could Bryce Courtenay have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

restricted the amount of cliches about women and expanded more on the final outcome of his writing his story and Marg Hamilton.

What does Humphrey Bower bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

he redeems some of the self depreciating humor and allows you to overlook the authors at times tedious repetitions and cliches.

Could you see Fishing for Stars being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

yes but only if it were together with the first book, The Persimmon Tree. No idea on actors!

Any additional comments?

Read the Persimmon Tree first or you'll be disappointed and irritated. I read this sequel and can understand why other readers were disappointed and given poor reviews. This is not his best book, but I did enjoy most of it as part of the previous story. It took me a while to get into the first book, so I read The Four Fires which was more fun and more akin to The Power of One. I felt I had to got into the style of this author and so decided to go back to the Persimmon Tree but had to make an effort to tolerate some cliches and repetitions of storyline especially for Fishing for Stars.I still enjoyed it overall. There is some good storytelling and information in there, once you get used to the writing style but not everyone's cup of tea! One for fans I think and not the best Bryce Courtney book to start with.

good, as expected. lits of sex details.

I love the development of the characters and the cultural and historic details that are built into all of courtnay's books. and anything with this narrator. this one had lots of sexual details that I got sick of hearing about. but, still....I can't help but love everything with this pair of author/narrator.

Complex Love Triangle

SUMMARY, in Bryce Courtenay's own words:

"Fishing for Stars has, at its heart, two passionate, unforgettable, but very different, women. One is exotic, damaged, and shrewd; the other beautiful, determined and zealous. Both are bitter rivals for the love of the same man.

My story is set in Australia, the Pacific Islands, Japan and Indonesia during the latter half of the twentieth century. Nick Duncan is an ingenuous male with a great deal more female on his hands than he can possibly hope to understand.

The contest he is called upon to referee is the clash between the two great loves of his life: the seductive Anna Til, and the older, equally fascinating Marg Hamilton. Nick struggles between their worlds: one exploiting the world's riches for profit, the other fighting to save the environment and its creatures, large and small.

I hope you like Fishing for Stars, it is a story of ambition, destruction, love, tears and laughter, with a soupcon of hope thrown in."

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Important Note: "Fishing for Stars" contains explicit sexual content and mature subject matter.

This book is the sequel to "The Persimmon Tree" published in 2007. This book does stand on it's own. But for me, I like to read books in the proper sequence. Hopefully, Audible will add this book to their website.

The narrator Humphrey Bower is excellent. In this book, his Japanese accents are superb. If you like his narration and want to read a great book, read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (also an Australian author).

If you like this book, read "The Gold Coast" by Nelson DeMille. It is a intense Romance/Thriller with erotic sex scenes and mafia (instead of Japanese Yakuza).