Illywhacker - Softcover

Carey, Peter

3.77

2,999 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571139493 ISBN 13: 9780571139491

Publisher: Faber Faber Inc, 1998

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This comic narrative from the lips of a 109-year-old con-man is peopled with aviators, car salesmen, Chinamen and impresarios. By the author of Booker prizewinner "Oscar and Lucinda".

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From the Back Cover:

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 - especially 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.

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.

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