The Sarsaparilla Souvenir is based on the true story of First Fleet convict Mary Bryant. Forced to fight the brutality of the English penal system in order to survive, she endures prison life and transportation to Botany Bay but never gives up her dream of returning to England. Through her courage, determination and intelligence she organizes the first successful escape from Port Jackson with her husband, two young children and seven other convicts. In so doing Mary shines as the ‘one who got away’ and, arguably, is the first female convict expatriate of Australia. Although defying storms, starvation, thirst and savage aborigines, betrayal from within their own ranks leads to their recapture. Only Mary’s dream of return to her native land can give her the strength to survive the tragic events of her expatriate journey. The Sarsaparilla Souvenir is a story with all the elements of epic drama covering the full gamut of emotions as expressed through the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. Its appeal lies in the very ordinary human heart withstanding great suffering, in the very ordinary human being struggling and defeating an unjust and brutal system, and in the knowledge that two frail sarsaparilla leaves, relics of this great adventure, now rest quietly on a shelf in the Library of New South Wales, two hundred years later, having survived an equally remarkable voyage. The fact that this is so defies ‘sunny’ logic but brings ‘Starlight to our Blackest Night’.
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Reader Response:
Received by e-card: 26th January, 2008.
"It has been said by Samuel Pepys that 'Memoirs are true and useful stars' but it be only Blackest Night that bears the Star's real brilliance. When me darkest prison be black as Night I seek Freedom in the Starlight of me Mind. (M.B.)"
(The Sarsaparilla Souvenir)
Dear Jo Anne,
I enjoyed the book very much and indeed it was worth contacting you directly and having the book sent from Australia. I think that you have a very vivid and descriptive writing style.
I particularly liked the description of the walk in the forest which really conjuered-up the calmness and beauty of Australia and was also quite thrilling with the tension of the meeting with the Aboriginal. I loved your passaes set in Kupang especially about the fruit. It really made me wish that I were there and one day I hope that I will visit Kupang. I imagine that the few months in Kupang were amongst the happiest days of Mary's life and your writing really brings this alive.
I thought that your method of describing the hardship and terrible conditions that the convicts endured under transportation by having Mary describe them in a humourous way was very effective as people that I have met who have taken part in great struggles tell me that jokes and tongue-in-cheek humour help them to transcend sufferings and perservere with the fight - so this really rings true with me.
I suppose if I have to come up with one criticism it would be that I really enjoyed the ideas that you explored in the first and last chapters about what happened in Mary's later life and I would just have liked a bit more of that. However I realise that you are developing fiction about a real historical character whom is very well known to have vanished from history. Of course you had a very narrow balancing act between concluding an unkown sotry and just making up a version of events that might not have given justice to the historical Mary. I think that you have succeeded in forming a sensible and emotionally satisfying ending to the novel and it may well be likely that our ficitonal imagination is as close to the truth as we can ever know and so becomes as valid as that truth. Anyway, I hope that Mary had a happy ending to her story in truth. She certainly deserved it.
With all my best wishes,
Ian Sternberg.
Received from Xlibris Contact Author Link: 22.08.06.
Hi Jo Anne, I am writing to you to let you know how much I enjoyed your book. Recently I have read two award-winning historical novels and I enjoyed your book much more than those. Your book is obviously well researched and it is a great story that you have brought to life. The language was well developed and the story delicately crafted. The detail of the story especially toward the end of the book was almost remniscent of Dickens. Well done and thanks for a good read. Kind regards, Elizabeth Rosa
Received by email, February, 2006:
J'ai été très interessée par la lecture de votre livre. J'ai découvert avec beaucoup de plaisir tout un univers que je ne connaissais pas. J'ai beaucoup apprécié la manière dont étaient décrites les situations difficiles, sans excès de dramatisation, ce qui me permettait d'aborder cette lecture sans appréhension. Le décès des deux enfants ayant été cependant inévitablement un moment de grande émotion. Merci beaucoup pour les moments agréables que j'ai passés grâce à vous. J'attends une deuxième oeuvre. Simone Barat
Sarsaparilla Souvenir
