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The Persimmon Tree
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 27 hrs and 57 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Persimmon Tree opens in Indonesia in 1942 on the cusp of Japanese invasion and the evacuation of Batavia (Jakarta) by the Dutch. Seventeen-year-old Nicholas Duncan is on holiday there, in pursuit of an exotic butterfly known as the Magpie Crow. It's an uncertain, dangerous time to be in Indonesia, and Nick's options of getting out are fast dwindling. Amidst the fear and chaos he falls in love with Anna, the beautiful daughter of a Dutch acquaintance, and she nicknames him 'Mr Butterfly'.
To assist in the escape, Anna's father gifts Nick his prized yacht, Vlermuis, to sail to Australia. Singapore has just fallen, the Japanese have made it to Sumatra, and the waters are dangerous. Vlermuis is not long out of Batavia when Nick is forced ashore for repairs. He witnesses the bloody execution of shipwrecked Allied soldiers by natives, and while burying what's left of the bodies, Nick notices one wounded soldier has escaped death, and he carries him back to his yacht.
The rescued soldier is a lower-class Irish Catholic American called Kevin Judge. He has no sailing experience, but he assists Nick in navigating through some dramatic storms and the two form an unlikely and lifelong friendship.
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My darling little boy Albie adores playing at our new neighbours’ house. And after the terrible year we’ve had, I feel so lucky that we can start over in this perfect place, with new friends who treat Albie like the son they never had. He can’t stop talking about the tree house they’re building him, and the cookies they bake together. But as time passes, something starts to feel wrong. Why don’t they ever open the front door more than a crack? They told me they had no children so who does the small pink tricycle I saw in their hall belong to?
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Miss Lucy-price Lewis
- By Angie on 06-07-23
By: K. L. Slater
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The Jane Austen Collection
- An Audible Original Drama
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Claire Foy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billie Piper, and others
- Length: 45 hrs
- Unabridged
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Renowned as much for her wit and satirical social commentary as for her stories of love and romance, Jane Austen remains unfailingly relevant and one of Britain’s best loved authors. In this Audible Original collection, an all-star list of narrators (Billie Piper, Claire Foy, Emma Thompson, Florence Pugh and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) capture Austen’s pin-sharp humour and tone in these dramatisations of her six beloved novels accompanied by a full cast.
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Not a faithful rendition
- By Anne McClain on 12-13-20
By: Jane Austen
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Fingerprints of the Gods
- The Quest Continues
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Fingerprints of the Gods is the revolutionary rewrite of history that has persuaded millions of listeners throughout the world to change their preconceptions about the history behind modern society. An intellectual detective story, this unique history audiobook directs probing questions at orthodox history, presenting disturbing new evidence that historians have tried - but failed - to explain.
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Classic in Historical Mysteries
- By Kelly on 09-05-19
By: Graham Hancock
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My Perfect Daughter
- By: Sarah Denzil
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Zoe didn't meet her daughter the way most mothers do. She finds five-year-old Maddie alone and dirty on a countryside road. Frightened for Maddie's safety, she picks her up and takes her back to her father, not knowing what she's about to step into. Because Maddie wasn't just lost; she was there to lure her serial killer dad's new victim. After escaping from the clutches of Maddie's dangerous father, she bonds with the little girl. Only Maddie knows what it was like to be at that house. And when no family members come forward to claim Maddie, Zoe decides to adopt her.
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Absolutely Ghoulish
- By Selene Rackley on 04-29-22
By: Sarah Denzil
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The Boar's Nest
- Sue Brewer and the Birth of Outlaw Country Music
- By: Rachel Bonds, Holly Gleason, Dub Cornett
- Narrated by: Mandy Moore, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, W. Earl Brown, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
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Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson. Before they were household names, these budding legends called Sue’s Nashville apartment—lovingly dubbed the “Boar’s Nest”—home. Sue’s place was an intimate staging ground where a new breed of singer-songwriters—wounded souls, wayward upstarts—would spur each other on to tap into something bigger, realer.
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fantastic
- By Jennifer L. Applebaum on 03-18-24
By: Rachel Bonds, and others
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Hit in the solar plexus
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Born and raised in a poor, working-class family in Toronto, Jack Spayd is the son of an unhappy marriage. After being taken under the wing of "Miss Frostbite", the owner of a local jazz club, Jack becomes a gifted musician, playing piano and harmonica. Fame and the allure of gambling takes him to Vegas, and prospects of fortune take him to the Belgian Congo, where he's heard it's possible to earn big money working in the most dangerous parts of the local copper mines.
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On the Day we lost Bryce
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Best audiobook of the year!
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Typical Bryce Courtney/Humphrey Bower ....awesome
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No light reading!
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Oh Danny Boy!
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Extraordinary Story
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Fortune Cookie
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It's the 1960s and the world of advertising is coming alive - and it's an exciting world to be part of. Simon Wong, a Chinese-Australian and promising young advertising executive, is sent to Singapore to establish an office. He finds himself thrust into an environment that is at once strangely familiar and profoundly different; one where the rules that govern behaviour - both in business and in personal life - differ wildly from what he is used to. And where all is not what it appears to be.
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You need a refresh Mr Bower and Mr Courtenay
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The Family Frying Pan
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Mrs. Moses is a small woman with a big heart and enormous courage. The only survivor of a Cossack raid on her village, she takes with her a big cast-iron frying pan, so heavy that she can only sling it over her back. Yet this is no ordinary frying pan, it's The Family Frying Pan, blessed with a Russian soul.
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Bad Narrator Decision!
- By Johnnie Walker on 04-29-10
By: Bryce Courtenay
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Sylvia
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From master storyteller Bryce Courtenay comes a colorful, lusty story set in the 13th century, an epic tale of a Europe torn by religious intolerance. The story centers around Sylvia Honeyeater, who sings like an angel and can literally charm the birds from the trees. The narrative also features the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Francis of Assisi, the Muslim Sultan and his harem, and the fervor that becomes the Children's Crusade and then, later, the Crusades.
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a departure for Bryce
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Smoky Joe's Cafe
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Thommo returns from Vietnam to an Australia that regards him as a mercenary guilty of war crimes. He begins to develop all kinds of physical and mental problems, and thinks it must only be him until he finds he is not alone. Ten mates, all who remain of his platoon who fought and died in the Battle of Long Tan, are affected the same way.
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Australian Vietnam vet with Agent Orange
- By Kathleen on 10-01-12
By: Bryce Courtenay
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April Fool's Day
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This is Bryce Courtenay's moving tribute to his son, Damon, a hemophiliac who died from medically acquired AIDS on April 1, 1991, at the age of 24. April Fool's Day is controversial, painful and heartbreaking, yet has a gentle humor. It is also life-affirming, and, above all, a testimony to the incredible regenerative strength of love: how when we confront our worst, we can become our best. This tragic yet uplifting story will change the way you think.
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This is A Love Story
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By: Bryce Courtenay
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The Silver Moon
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Each of us has a place to return to in our minds, a place of clarity and peace, a place to think, to create, to dream. For Bryce Courtenay this place was a waterhole in Africa where he used to escape to as a boy, in search of solitude. One evening, while lingering there, he witnessed the tallest of the great beasts drinking from the waterhole in the moonlight, and was spellbound. Ever since, he drew inspiration from this moment.
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Wish it was longer!
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By: Bryce Courtenay
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Shelter
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Mickey Bolitar’s year can’t get much worse. After witnessing his father’s death and sending his mom to rehab, he’s forced to live with his estranged uncle Myron and switch high schools. A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For a while, it seems like Mickey’s train wreck of a life is finally improving—until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley’s trail into a seedy underworld.
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What is a 70 year old man doing reading..
- By Wayne on 06-20-14
By: Harlan Coben
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The Power and the Glory
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Graham Greene explores corruption and atonement in this penetrating novel set in 1930s Mexico during the era of Communist religious persecutions. As revolutionaries determine to stamp out the evils of the church through violence, the last Roman Catholic priest is on the lam, hunted by a police lieutenant. Despite his own sense of worthlessness—he is a heavy drinker and has fathered an illegitimate child—he is determined to continue to function as a priest until captured.
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Lousy recording quality of bad narration
- By Vincent on 10-08-12
By: Graham Greene
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River God
- Ancient Egypt, Book 1
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
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- Unabridged
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Taita is a humble slave, an expert in art, poetry, medicine and engineering as well as keeping important secrets. He is the most treasured possession of Lord Intef. Yet when Intef's beautiful daughter, Lostris, is married to the Pharaoh, Taita is commanded to follow her and swiftly finds himself deeper than he ever could have imagined in a world of deception and treachery. But outside the palace, the great kingdom of Egypt is divided and in even greater danger. Enemies threaten on all sides, and only Taita holds the power to save them all....
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Abridged
- By LM on 04-01-19
By: Wilbur Smith
What listeners say about The Persimmon Tree
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- CBDC
- 02-13-11
An excellent sequel
I had read FISHING FOR STARS previously when THE PERSIMMON TREE (which is the earlier book) was not yet on Audible. Now I am reading FISHING FOR STARS again, I remembered large parts but there are details that I couldn't have understood in the same way in my earlier reading. The PERSIMMON TREE takes place in the Pacific Theater of WWII and provides an important perspective into the war in the islands many of which are now Indonesia, the Japanese war experience, history, cultural traditions, the comfort women, the old Japan and the overlay of the new one, survival and psychological scars. With Humphrey Bower reading, the books are everything that the best of Coutenay's books are.
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83 people found this helpful
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Overall
- theenglishmajor
- 09-26-10
Best Author- Narrator combo on the market
No one spins a tale quite like Bryce Courtenay. Add Humphrey Bower's narration and you have true magic. Bower is masterful doing all the accents for the multiple nationalities of Courtenay's characters. The two are forever linked in my mind. I waited quite awhile for Audible to offer the Persimmon Tree so I could read this two book series in order. It was well worth the wait. As always with Courtenay, in addition to a great story, you get a bit of history from the other side of the world. This wonderful story takes place during WW II in the South Pacific and brings all the human drama of that time to the listener with wonderful detail. Part of the story was a bit reminiscent of "Geisha". Loved listening to this and am looking forward to "Fishing for Stars" next.
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57 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Mimi Routh
- 09-17-10
Never a Dull Moment!
Courtenay was off to a great start in this two-book story. I started into this book knowing there would be a sequel. This book ends rather up in the air and nobody sails into the sunset. But the characters had love and lots of time on their side. Both author and narrator are in top form. Anybody short on credits could just write their own ending and not listen to Fishing for Stars which continues the story. I rather wish I had. I saw healing, cooperative business, babies, brilliant careers for all. But a truly loyal Courtenay fan will have to listen to both. I did. In this book I will say I heard some new (for me) vocabulary. The sex is explicit. There are quite a few most unpleasant scenes and a couple that were sublime, i.e., the little man sitting in the jungle with his watercolors. That was lovely!
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56 people found this helpful
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- Robert
- 01-23-13
Not for everyone.
This is another one of those times when I agree with both the positive and negative reviews of a book. With a greater than 4 star rating, clearly the positive ones outnumber the negative. However, I always try to read the lower scoring reviews of any book I’m interested in to glean something valuable possibly missed by the popular audience. If you have not read it and are interested in this book you already enter with a preconception that you will probably enjoy reading it. I suggest that you read the negative reviews.
I have read many of Bryce Courtney’s books. With the talented Humphrey Bower reading/performing any book it is hard to go wrong especially when he teams up with this author. But I think this particular book was not either’s best effort. What is surprising to me is that The Persimmon Tree is not one of the author’s earlier books written at a time (2007) when perhaps his writing skills were less finely honed.
While I don’t agree with many of the negative reviews for their stated reasons, personally, I think the writing itself of this book is at best only mediocre. I’ll almost always bump up a book’s rating because of good writing even if I’m not crazy about the story/plot itself. This lacked both of what we find in Courtney’s earlier works.
Bottom line, while the book is not for everyone, particularly if you are offended by some of the S&M sexual content (I was not), many will probably enjoy it. I cannot say this book was bad nor can I say it was good. I can say that it is not of the calibre of Four Fires. It’s at best only 3 stars for me.
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55 people found this helpful
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- Suzanne
- 11-24-11
Desperately needs an editor
This was an odd book - compelling in its way (I did finish it), but often frustrating and downright uncomfortable to get through. The storyline, and the elements that make it up, are the compelling part. It's summarized elsewhere, so I won't do so here. But the characters are all either unsufferably good or insufferably bad. When they are insufferably good, they walk on water to the point of ridiculousness. When they are bad, they are very very bad. And Bryce Courtenay makes sure you know that, through overly written and thoroughly unpleasant scenes that drag on and on and on. The problem with audiobooks is that you can't easily skip over small sections because you don't know when they end. You're forced to plod through. As for the narrator, he's not too bad - he uses accents effectively, but at times indiscriminately, when they don't make sense (why would a woman, Dutch or not, who grew up in Java speak the native language with a heavy Dutch accent?)
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39 people found this helpful
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- Janice Budd
- 07-21-12
Great Listen
Finally! I have found a book to break the 3-star slump I seemed to be in.
I have found a new author and new narrator. Bryce has a lot more novels to discover, and Humphrey Bower brings many of them to life with his fabulous command of accents.
The story has a little bit of everything. It is a romance, but not a mushy tale, of two young people separated by war when the Japanese invade Java. Nick sets sail for Australia expecting to meet Anna there. Anna, gets caught behind enemy lines and learns to do whatever she needs to do to survive. Nick, because of his command of the Japanese language is recruited to Intelligence in the Navy and stationed at Guatemala Canal.
Will they survive the war, and if they do, will their love for each other survive?
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22 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Nicole
- 03-09-11
The Persimmon tree
This was my first audio book and I thoughly enjoyed being able to get on with housework while listening. I also found that I could get into the book in a way that I don't do when reading as I tend to read too fast. The narrator was excellent in the way he was able to do the many accents the story required.My one problem with the story was how often things were repeated. Perhaps one does not notice it in a written book, but it became quite irritating when a similar summary of a situation kept being repeated.
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22 people found this helpful
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- thawstone
- 12-02-12
Not entirely enthralled with this one
Most subjects Courtenay writes about I find interesting if not fascinating, however the large middle section of this book about the woman's training to please her captor held almost no interest for me at all. But that's just me, you may love this part of the book. This was my least favorite Courtenay book to date.
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19 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Laurie lou
- 08-13-10
Great Historical Read
This was the first novel I listened to by Bryce Courtenay. I found it very engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. I listened to Brother Fish next and could not finish it. It was too similar and the narrator sounded the same for the characters and I kept mixing them up in my head. So my advice is to not listen to them too close together. If you are looking for a credit worthy novel for a long trip or long weekend this is an excellent book.
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16 people found this helpful
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- B.J.
- 05-14-12
Beautifully read
Humphrey Bower is the whole reason this book worked for me. I don't think the storyline would have been nearly as captivating without his skilled narration. This is an excellent use of a credit.
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15 people found this helpful