The Persimmon Tree
Publisher: McArthur & Company
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Format: ebook
Number of pages: 0
Copyright date: Copyright © 2007 Bryce Courtenay
Description: Standing in the soft lamplight was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I suppose at sixteen you’re not truly yet a woman, but Anna Van Heerden couldn’t possibly be described as a young girl. I guess since I was just short of eighteen I could still be seen as a young bloke, but the extra two years of maturity I may have gained on her were totally specious. I was the callow youth and she was . . . well, I didn’t know how to describe her, in my inadequate male vocabulary she was . . . she was a total knockout! But certainly she was a woman and not a girl.
			 Nick Duncan
			 Butterfly collector, Java 1942