Illywhacker

Illywhacker

by Peter Carey
Illywhacker

Illywhacker

by Peter Carey

eBook

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Overview

In Australian slang, an illywhacker is a country fair con man, an unprincipled seller of fake diamonds and dubious tonics. And Herbert Badgery, the 139-year-old narrator of Peter Carey's uproarious novel, may be the king of them all. Vagabond and charlatan, aviator and car salesman, seducer and patriarch, Badgery is a walking embodiment of the Australian national character—espcially of its proclivity for tall stories and barefaced lies.

As Carey follows this charming scoundrel across a continent and a century, he creates a crazy quilt of outlandish encounters, with characters that include a genteel dowager who fends off madness with an electric belt and a ravishing young girl with a dangerous fondness for rooftop trysts. Boldly inventive, irresistibly odd, Illywhacker is further proof that Peter Carey is one of the most enchanting writers at work in any hemisphere.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780307764256
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 09/01/2010
Series: Vintage International
Sold by: Random House
Format: eBook
Pages: 608
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

About The Author
PETER CAREY is the author of thirteen previous novels. In addition to the Booker Prize, his honors include the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Born in Australia, he has lived in New York City for more than twenty-five years.

Date of Birth:

May 7, 1943

Place of Birth:

Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia

Education:

Monash University (no degree)
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