Peter Carey

The recipient of two Booker Prizes, Peter Carey expands his extraordinary achievement with each new novel--and now gives us something entirely different.When famously shy Charley becomes obsessed with Japanese manga and anime, Peter is not only delighted for his son but also entranced himself. Thus begins a journey, with a father sharing his twelve-year-old's exotic comic books, that ultimately leads them to Tokyo, WHERE a strange Japanese boy will become both their guide and judge. Quickly the visitors plunge deep into the lanes of Shitimachi--into the "weird stuff" of modern Japan--meeting manga artists and anime directors; painstaking impersonators called "visualists," who adopt a remarkable variety of personae; and solitary otakus, whose existence is thoroughly computerized. What emerges from these encounters is a far-ranging study of history and of culture both high and low--from samurai to salaryman, from Kabuki theater to the postwar robot craze. Peter Carey's observations are always provocative, even when his hosts point out, politely, that he is once again wrong about Japan. And his adventures with Charley are at once comic, surprising, and deeply moving, as father and son cope with and learn from each other in a strange place far from home.This is, in the end, a remarkable portrait of a culture--whether Japan or adolescence--that looks eerily familiar but remains tantalizingly closed to outsiders.From the Hardcover edition.

"True History of Kelly Gang is the song of Australia, and it sings its protest in a voice at once crude and delicate, menacing and heart-wrenching. Carey gives us Ned Kelly as orphan, as Oedipus, as horse thief, farmer, bushranger, reformer, bank-robber, police-killer and, finally, as his country's beloved Robin Hood.". "In 1878 Francis Harty, a poor farmer, said, 'Ned Kelly is the best bloody man that has ever been in Benalla, I would fight up to my knees in blood for him - I have known him for years, I would take his word sooner than another man's oath'.". "By the time of his hanging in 1880 a whole country would seem to agree - and it is a measure of Peter Carey's achievement that he has not only made art from his country's great story but that he persuades us all to understand the true measure of that 'best bloody man'."--BOOK JACKET.

With only 50 dollars to their name, Sam Kellow and his family arrive in Toronto to sell his mother's latest painting. Wearing his "Sonic the Hedgehog" pyjamas, Sam sleep-walks out of the hotel room and wakes to find the door firmly closed behind him. Exploring the hotel hallway, Sam meets Nasty Muriel, Droopy George and their chickenpox covered son Wilfred. How Sam gains his opportunity to win the Big Bazoohley ... the big Jackpot and save his family's finances is hilarious. A zany adventure. impossible to put down. Peter Carey's first children's book is a sparkling mix of fantasy, reality and humour. A vastly enjoyable tale from one of the great storytellers of our century.

A rebellious Anglican priest and a teenaged heiress who buys a glass factory in Australia pursue an unlikely romance.

London, 1837. Jack Maggs, a foundling trained as a thief, betrayed and deported to a penal colony in Australia, has reversed his fortunes. Under threat of execution he returns to London after twenty years of exile to try to fulfill his well-concealed heart’s desire. Masquerading as a footman, Maggs places himself in the rather eccentric household of Percy Buckle, Esquire. But when the unlikely footman comes under the scrutiny of the brilliant and unscrupulous young novelist Tobias Oates, an enthusiastic dabbler in mesmerism, Maggs’s secrets are revealed and he is forced to take desperate, sometimes violent action. A powerful and unusual homage to Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, Jack Maggs displays all of Peter Carey’s broad historical and artistic knowledge, his masterful command of character, and his powerful moral vision. It is an unforgettable novel which will continue to stir the reader’s imagination and emotions long after it has been read.

A satire on Australia and its relationship to the U.S. The protagonist is actor Tristan Smith, a dwarf. He is a citizen of Effica, a small country whose theater is overshadowed by Voorstand, a big country with a culture that dominates the world. The novel follows him to Voorstand where his father became a famous actor by selling his soul. Tristan, too, achieves fame, but his career is cut short when the Voorstand authorities declare him a subversive.

"The day that Benny Catchprice was fired from the spare parts department of Catchprice Motors by his aunt Cathy was also the day that the Tax Inspector, Maria Takis, arrived to begin her long-overdue audit of the family business. But this is no ordinary investigation. Maria is eight months' pregnant, Granny Catchprice is at war with her offspring, and Benny, her grandson, wants to become an angel"--Jacket.

When his family runs low on funds while on a trip to Toronto, nine-year-old Sam allows himself to be "borrowed" and entered in a contest to find the Perfecto Kiddo, hoping to win $10,000.

They're always happy. Rory James has worked hard all his life to become a citizen of the idyllic city-state of Beulah. Like every other kid born in the neighboring country of Tophet, he's heard the stories: No crime or pollution. A house and food for everyone. It's perfect, and Rory is finally getting a piece of it. So is Tate Patterson. He's from Tophet, too, but he's not a legal immigrant; he snuck in as a thief. A city without crime seems like an easy score, until he crashes into Rory during a getaway and is arrested for assaulting a citizen. Instead of jail, Tate is enrolled in Beulah's Rehabilitation through Restitution program. By living with and serving his victim for seven years, Tate will learn the human face of his crimes. If it seems too good to be true, that's because it is. Tate is fitted with a behavior-modifying chip that leaves him unable to disobey orders-any orders, no matter how dehumanizing. Worse, the chip prevents him from telling Rory, the one man in all of Beulah who might care about him, the truth: in a country without prisons, Tate is locked inside his own mind.