Author: CAREY, PETER (1943-)
Title: Illywhacker / Peter Carey
Description: London ; Boston : Faber and Faber 1986. 8th edition. Very good paperback copy. Spine bands and panel edges slightly dust-toned and rubbed as with age. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight. bright. clean and strong. Physical description; 600 p. ; 23 cm. Summary; From the author of OSCAR AND LUCINDA and JACK MAGGS. a humorous novel narrated by the 109-year-old 'illywhacker'. or confidence trickster. of the title. who recalls jokes. inventions and characters from his life. Review: 'Australian history is almost always pictureseque' said Mark Twain. 'it does not read like history. but like the most beautiful lies'. This great. great book then. is truly Australian as it brims with fibs. magic. love stories. disasters and beautiful machines. The hypnotic hero. Herbert Badgery is the con man of the title - the illywhacker. and the book begins with him introducing himself at the age of 139 years old - 'it is hard to believe you can feel so bad and still not die'. Reflecting back on his long and picaresque journey. he leads us down a winding path through the history of his teeming. brilliant homeland. First published in 1985 when it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. it is always. and unfairly. eclipsed by its successor Oscar and Lucinda which won the prize in 1988. (Kirkus UK) Subjects; Impostors and imposture — Australia — Fiction. Rogues and vagabonds — Australia — Fiction. Aged men — Australia — Fiction. Fiction in English. Australian fiction. Authors. Australian. Impostors and imposture — Fiction. Rogues and vagabonds — Fiction. Australian fiction — 20th century. Centenarians — Fiction. Australia — Fiction. Fiction in English — Australian writers — 1945- — Texts. Novels. other prose & writers. FICTION / General. Genre; Fiction. Humorous stories. Picaresque literature. ISBN: 0571132073. Weight in Kg appr.:

Keywords: 0571132073