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Ikey Solomon is in the business of thieving and he's very good at it. 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.
I seldom pick up a book that is such a page turner that my friends notice my antisocial behavior when I sit in a corner with my kindle. This is one of those books. It was very difficult to put it down.I am amazed that Courtenay is not a more widely read author in the states. His books are well crafted, his characters engaging, and the stories flow along briskly.This is my second Courtenay book. I had previously read "Whitethorn" , which was set in South Africa, and was similarly impressed with it."The Potato Factory" is laced with real historical figures like Ikey Solomon, a notorious criminal in his time, who is thought to have been the model for Fagin in Oliver Twist. Ikey and several of his family members and "business associates" end up transported to Hobart Tasmania where much of this story unfolds.Most of the first half of the book takes place in London before the main characters are transported to the penal colony in Tasmania for various offenses including fencing, brothel keeping, and counterfeiting,I first learned of Ikey in Robert Hughes' excellent history of Australian transportation "The Fatal Shore" and many of the events and characters in Courtenay's novel are consistent with what is regarded as historical fact. Ikey was in the papers a lot in his day.My partner and I just finished spending a year sailing around Australia including several weeks in Tasmania where we were able to see and even anchor in many of the locations that play a part in this fascinating novel. This experience of actually being in the locations in this book, no doubt, enhanced my appreciation of the setting of this novel but the fact that Courtenay does an excellent job of describing the Tasmanian wilderness should bring the story alive for those who have not had the good fortune to visit the forlorn destination of so many of England's criminal class during the 19th century."The Potato Factory" is the first book of a trilogy that includes "Tomo and Hawk" and "Solomon's Song".One really nice feature of reading books like this on my kindle is that the built-n dictionary lets me instantly look up the definitions of many of the 19th century English words that the street smart characters in this novel use.I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical novels. Courtenay's novel is every bit as good a read as the historical novels of Gore Vidal, whose work I really like.
