Peter Carey (1) (1943–)
Author of True History of the Kelly Gang
For other authors named Peter Carey, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Peter Carey was born on May 7, 1943 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. His first two books, The Fat Man in History (1974) and War Crimes (1979), were short story collections. His first novel, Bliss, was published in 1982. At the time he was balancing his writing career with the operation of an show more advertising agency in Sydney, and his books were not generally known outside of Australia. He began to receive international attention when Illywhacker was published in 1985. He won the Booker Prize in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda and in 2001 for True History of the Kelly Gang. His other works include The Tax Inspector, Parrot and Olivier in America, and The Chemistry of Tears. He also won the Miles Franklin Award three times. In 2015 he made the Australian Book Designers Association Award shortlist for his title Amnesia. This title also made the 2015 Prime Minister's Literary Awards shortlist. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: © Marion Ettlinger
Works by Peter Carey
Oscar and Lucinda, True History of the Kelly Gang (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series) (2019) 33 copies, 1 review
The Chance 4 copies
Thirteen moons 1 copy
Peeling [short story] 1 copy
Close to the Sun 1 copy
Joe (in Collected Stories) 1 copy
Conversations with Unicorns 1 copy
Associated Works
The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories (1999) — Contributor — 356 copies, 6 reviews
Know the Past, Find the Future: The New York Public Library at 100 (2011) — Contributor — 120 copies, 3 reviews
Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing from the Land Down Under (1993) — Contributor — 27 copies, 1 review
Oscar and Lucinda [1997 film] — Original book — 25 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Carey, Peter Philip
- Birthdate
- 1943-05-07
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia
- Places of residence
- Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Queensland, Australia
London, England, UK
New York, New York, USA (show all 7)
Bellingen, New South Wales, Australia - Education
- Geelong Grammar School
Monash University - Occupations
- short-story writer
novelist
advertising copywriter
creative writing teacher (New York University)
writing instructor (Princeton University)
director of MFA program (Hunter College) - Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (2016)
Order of Australia - Awards and honors
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1989)
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Man Booker International Prize Finalist (2007, 2009) - Agent
- Amanda Urban (ICM)
- Short biography
- Peter Carey is an Australian novelist. Carey has won the Miles Franklin Award three times and is frequently named as Australia's next contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Carey won his first Booker Prize in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda, and won for the second time in 2001 with True History of the Kelly Gang. In May 2008 he was nominated for the Best of the Booker Prize. In addition to writing fiction, he collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders and is executive director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.
Members
Discussions
November 2015: Peter Carey in Monthly Author Reads (January 2022)
Peter Carey's "Wrong About Japan" in Japanese Culture (February 2010)
Reviews
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
This is the story of Ned Kelly told through a series of parcels of letters. I found the style of it a bit grating.
Great storyteller on topics I knew nothing of (i.e. Charles Babbage, automata, horology) with each alternating century's tale as compelling as the other. Gobbled it up creating accusations of "bookworm!"
Sydney, and Australia even, have not been high on my hit-list of must-see places. Till now. Now Peter Carey's made me want to go. This is a thoroughly idiosyncratic take on the city. You won't read about its monuments or its foodie credentials. But you will have a take on its history and how it came from being home to the aboriginal people to a convict settlement, to a busy and often beautiful city on a stunning coastline. This via a series of escapades and conversations with groups of old friends there. It's pacey, funny, eccentric. Read it.… (more)
An entertaining picaresque novel, in which a French nobleman, Olivier de Garmont, and John Larrit, an Englishman with a most complicated and difficult past lived variously in England, Australia and France, find their lives inextricably linked.
Parrot, or Perriquet, as Larrit often calls himself, is a reluctant servant, whose real talent is as an engraver. Garmont is loosely based on the life of aristocrat Alexis de Toqueville, and is an unlikely commentator on the state of American prisons and democratic society. A nobleman brought up with no democratic ideals, but plenty of neuroses, Olivier finds life in America difficult until he falls in love. Parrot is the man he constantly refers to and summons back when life gets tough.
Unable either to live together or without each other, the two men live through adventurous times in improbable but entertaining ways. The novel is also something of a commentary on France and America during a period of transition. A playful, entertaining and often thought-provoking read.… (more)
Parrot, or Perriquet, as Larrit often calls himself, is a reluctant servant, whose real talent is as an engraver. Garmont is loosely based on the life of aristocrat Alexis de Toqueville, and is an unlikely commentator on the state of American prisons and democratic society. A nobleman brought up with no democratic ideals, but plenty of neuroses, Olivier finds life in America difficult until he falls in love. Parrot is the man he constantly refers to and summons back when life gets tough.
Unable either to live together or without each other, the two men live through adventurous times in improbable but entertaining ways. The novel is also something of a commentary on France and America during a period of transition. A playful, entertaining and often thought-provoking read.… (more)
Lists
Booker Prize (5)
2000s decade (1)
Review 1 (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Victorian Period (1)
Shaking a Leg (1)
Parallel Novels (1)
METAfiction (1)
Five star books (1)
to get (1)
Folio Society (1)
Unread books (2)
My TBR (1)
Franklit (2)
A Novel Cure (3)
To Read (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 43
- Also by
- 18
- Members
- 22,977
- Popularity
- #919
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 526
- ISBNs
- 778
- Languages
- 25
- Favorited
- 73