Bryce Courtenay

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Bryce Courtenay (born 14 August 1933) is an Australian novelist born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He spent most of his early years in a small village in the Lebombo Mountains in South Africa's Limpopo province.

While studying journalism in London, Bryce met his future wife and eventually emigrated to Australia. They married in 1959 and had three sons, Brett, Adam and Damon. Damon had haemophilia and died at age 24 from AIDS, contracted through a blood transfusion.

His novels are primarily set in either Australia, his adopted country, or South Africa, the country of his birth. His first book, The Power of One, was published in 1989 and, despite Courtenay's fears that it would never sell, quickly became one of Australia's best selling books by any living author. The story has since been made into a film - as well as being re-released in a version fit for children to read.

Bryce Courtenay is one of Australia's most commercially successful authors. However, only The Power of One has been published in the United States. Courtenay claims that this is because, "American publishers for the most part have difficulties about Australia, they are interested in books in their own country first and foremost. However, we receive many e-mails and letters from Americans who have read my books and I am hoping in the future that publishers will recognise that there is a market for all my books in the U.S."

Today, Bryce Courtenay lives in the Hunter Valley with his family, north of Sydney, Australia.

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