Jo's Old Site

Bryce Courtenay wrote this wonderful book, and its ISBN is 0-670-88351-4 and is published by Viking Penguin.

The story is set around 1910 in a rural area of New South Wales and is about the Bergman family who live on their ten acre farm but the main character in the story is Jessica Bergman.

Jessica is an outdoors type of person, and though her parents aren’t divorced she is brought up mainly by her father, who is getting on in age and needed help around the farm while her older sister was brought up by their mother.

Meg is her sister, and Jessica and her really don’t have much in common accept they both really like Jack Thomas and their mother wanted Meg to marry Jack Thomas who lived on a farm next door as he came from a rich family.

Also as Jessica finds work as a tar boy on the Riverview farm, she develops a friendship with Jack Thomas, and another guy named Billy who both decide to call her tea leaf.

But Jessica’s employment isn’t approved by everyone, as other tar boys get jealous and Jessica becomes a victim of bullying. Billy and Jack then finds out and Billy tries to sort it out with the tar boys and a accident happens which leaves Billy brain damaged.

Billy then finds work as a gardener on the Riverview farm, but then becomes a victim of mental abuse as Jack has a mother and two sisters who aren’t really nice.

Jessica is a real heroine, as when Billy murders Jack’s mother and two sisters she keeps herself calm and takes Billy to the magistrate.

She even goes against her father’s advice at the trial as she thinks for herself and tells Richard Runche who was suppose to be representing Billy his side of the story and convinces Runche to say something in court.

The youngest Bergman daughter then falls pregnant, and this is when it gets really crazy and all sorts of things happen I really enjoyed it.