The Potato Factory

The Australian Trilogy, Book 1

By: Bryce Courtenay

Narrated by: Humphrey Bower

Length: 23 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Always leave a little salt on the bread...

Ikey Solomon's favorite saying is also his way of doing business, and in the business of thieving he's very successful indeed. Ikey's partner in crime is his mistress, the forthright Mary Abacus, until misfortune befalls them. They are parted and each must make the harsh journey from thriving nineteenth century London to the convict settlement of Van Diemen's Land.

In the backstreets and dives of Hobart Town, Mary learns the art of brewing and 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 and the other bastard. As each woman sets out to destroy the other, the families are brought to the edge of disaster.

©2013 Christine Courtenay (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"In the tradition of Charles Dickens, Courtenay creates a unique cast of characters from the outset of this epic novel....Humphrey Bower's performance is a marvel...making this one of those rare books with a sweep of characters the readers come to care about deeply." (AudioFile)

Oliver Twist

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Very depressing storyline, it would be nice if they had some more positive things happen.

What did you like best about this story?

Interesting, liked the history.

Do you think The Potato Factory needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes, I enjoy reading the next one to find out what happened to the twin and why he was gone for so long.

Any additional comments?

A little gruesome but a good story.

left me speechless

This is one of the finest books I have ever listened to! I wish I'd known about it years ago. I'm going to search for a copy of the book and will undoubtedly listen to this recording again - After the tumult in my head has calmed a bit. The narration is superlative and I plan to look for more books by Bryce Courtenay AND hopefully find more works narrated by Humphrey Bower. So >>> This is a long book, this is a heavy duty story and even tho there are passages in the book that will leave you squirming in horror at what humans are capable of doing to others there is stupendous compassion writ large here too. Ya just gotta listen to this!

Awesome

Great book! Narrators was also great! Kept me interested from beginning to end. Highly recommend.

Powerfully told story... but a warning

A woven tapestry tale with the bawdy, tender, joyous and horrific. He opens the slums of London and the prisioner deportations to Tasmania to our view. You learn history in passing but more important meet characters so complex, that I felt I knew them... almost as friends who shared what they had learned from life. It is a hard book to put down, but does include a great deal of profanity, whores, multiple graphic sexual events and violence. With all the good in it, I still strongly wouldn't recommend for a teen reader or tender spirited soul.

Outstanding listen

This first book of a trilogy, was as good or better than any book/books I have listned to out of the more than 120 books I have downloaded through Audible. Out of all the reviews not one listed all three books and in the order they were written. All are avialible through Aubible. This trilogy of novels contains "The Potato Factory", "Tommo & Hawk" and "Solomon's Song". In that order. Another book by the same author "Brother Fish" was outstanding. Maybe a tad better (if that is possible) than the aforementioned Trilogy.

Learning history through fiction

It is rare to understand the history of a specific region; there is simply too much information about the plight of all people, the landscape, the political times, to make sense of the period. The Potato Factory is an anomaly. This first book of Bryce Courtenay’s trilogy brings this time to life. Not only are you involved in the lives of crooks and scoundrels, whores and bawdy houses, but the treatment these poor wretches receive is disgusting--and most horrid is the plight of the children. The saga of the characters from England to Australia persists, as a reader you begin to admire and respect them and their tenacity. I could not stop listening…and being a cheap Audible user, I waited two weeks until I could download the second book. It was every bit as good as the first book. What a treasure. The third book in the Potato Factory is not on Audible. By the time it is I’m sure I’ll have listened to the first two books again, just to hear the story—and contrary to other reviewer I thoroughly enjoyed Humphrey Bower the narrator.

An Excellant Book!

This is an amazing view of the 19th Century London poor and criminal class, and their migration to Van Deimon's Land. It is also a facinating introduction to Jewish life in London at that time.

Breathtaking Story

What an amazing tale. Together with "Tommo and Hawk" and "Solomon's Song," Bryce Courtenay's Australian Trilogy is a treasure of historical fiction. Courtenay, who was an ad man for most his life, came to writing late in life. But thank God he did.

Courtenay considered these books his love song to Australia. He immigrated there from South Africa as a boy and said Australia gave him a chance at a life he could never have hoped for in Africa.

While the whole of the trilogy is breathtaking in it's breadth and scope, this first installment is the best of them. Ikey Solomon, a real life rogue of the London underworld, and his mistress and business partner Mary Abacus are both sentenced to the prison colony of Van Diemen's Land. From there, through many trials and tribulations, they forge a life for themselves in the newfound British colony.

Both heartbreaking and uplifting, Courtenay's trilogy brings life to the too often neglected history of Australia. If you are a lover of history and literature, I urge you to purchase this book. The story and characters will stay with you forever.

The Potato Factory

I usually enjoy Bryce Courtenay books. However, there are too many characters with no moral compass here. Reading/listening to a long story about not very nice people, gets tiresome.

Flashman for Aussies

Flashman becomes Fagan and we even meet Charles Dickens and the Artful Dodger. The naration is very good. The author could have left out a little of the introspection and a few of the horrors that befall the charactors, however.