Book description
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 frantically 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.
Bryce Courtenay was born in South Africa and has lived in Sydney for
the major part of his life. He is the bestselling author of
The Power
of One
,
April Fool's Day
,
The Potato Factory
,
Tommo & Hawk
,
Jessica
,
Solomon's Song,
Smoky Joe's Cafe,
and
Four Fires
