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Fortune Cookie cover art

Fortune Cookie

By: Bryce Courtenay
Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
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Publisher's Summary

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 a 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.

Under the veneer of the commercial world lie some shocking truths - of people smuggling, drug trafficking, and murder. And Mercy B. Lord, the woman Simon falls for, is caught up in it. From wartime Asian comfort houses to CIA spy rings, Bryce Courtenay takes us on a thrilling journey with a great love story at its heart.

©2013 Christine Courtenay; 2010 Bryce Courtenay (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

What listeners say about Fortune Cookie

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Enthralling!

As with all his books Bryce Courtney has done an amazing job researching all facets to ensure that the story reflects happenings during the period in which the novel is portrayed. Humphrey Bower is my all time favourite presenter. He is truly fantastic!

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Fabulous book

Will engage you from start to finish. What a talent Bryce was and also narrator Humphrey Bower is the best who brings the story to life

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Brilliant!!!!!

A perfect Bryce Courtney the story is intriguing and the narrator is perfect great book

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Excellent

Amazing story and narrated brilliantly by Humphrey Bower. I've always been a Bryce Courtenay fan, and I love hearing his book come to life by someone who really feels like they belong reading it.

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Not author’s best

Love most of Bryce’s work, though not so much his later works, such as this. It’s good enough with typical strong character development that really make you care. The story itself just doesn’t quite have the strength and depth of his earlier work. Still well worth the journey for the fans. I wouldn’t start with this as a new reader though as it’s not a reflection of the genius of the writer. Humphrey Bower is incredible as always.

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Good story and brilliantly performed.

One of Courtenay's great stories which Humphrey Bower performed with great distinction. Great characters. The historical references are very interesting albeit with a couple of minor errors.

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great book

loved the narrator , loved the story, riveting!! Must be one of the best story tellers in this age

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Fortube Cookie

As always, Bryce Courtenay's story holds one's attention throughout entwining fiction with interesting historical facts. Highly recomnended.

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Disappointing story of annoying rich boy

Main charature displays multiple, ongoing examples of lack of situational awareness, basic emotional understanding and, ultimately, emphatic disrespect of basic human emotional need. This reoccur during every hour of the entire story.

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Unable to recommend

I found that this book suffers from the authors tendency rub the diligently completed research in the nose of the reader. World building is one thing, but at times it felt like I was working my way through the Wikipedia entry for Singapore, with a side character more than willing to dump some exposition no matter the materiality.

There is a lot more to dislike then there is to like. On the plus side, it does give you plenty of information about 1960s Singapore. On the negative side a lot of that information is delivered via awkward or annoying contrived situations. These regular exposition dumps tend to have the effect of stalling the narrative flow.

I've recently read both the Persimmon Tree Duology, and the Potato Factor Trilogy, and the author continues to excel at writing unlikeable primary characters. And, as per usual, Person Y ends up as the wealthiest person in the southern hemisphere as a result of dominating industry X. Is this meant to be a baby boomer power fantasy? Is Simon Koo meant to be likeable?

While reading the book, I had a constant feeling that real-life events from that time period were firstly appropriated, then sketched out on a timeline, and then Simon was shoehorned into them as a result of a) dumb luck, b) the kindness of strangers, c) conveniently chosen hobbies. He is a veritable Forest Gump - except more solidly built and packing hackneyed Australianisms, Or was that just the 1960s? Anyway, at some point toward the end, the book turns into a spy thriller - which was far-fetched even within the logic of the novel.

Less rationally, the way Courtenay gets his primary characters to deploy terms of endearment with great enthusiasm constantly grated on me as well. Once again, maybe that was just the 1960s. I haven't forgiven Nick Duncan for this in the Persimmon Tree either.

On the performance front, I thought HB was made to work hard for his pay cheque. And despite some of the accents being cringe, he didn't hold anything back. The performance was stronger than the story for me.

In summary, die hard Courtenay fans will probably enjoy this book. But people who have read a couple of titles and are starting to get worn down will not enjoy this.

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