Peter Carey Books

National hero, Javanese mystic, pious Muslim, and leader of the "holy war" against the Dutch between 1825 and 1830, the Yogyakarta prince, Dipanagara, is pre-eminent in the pantheon of modern Indonesian historical figures. This is the first full biography based on Dutch and Javanese sources. The Power of Prophecy sets Dipanagara's life against the context of the turbulent events of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when European imperialsm reached Indonesi, destroying forever Java's old order and propelling the twin forces of Islam and Javanese national identity into a fatal confrontation with the Dutch. This confrontation known as the Java War, in which Dipanagara was defeated and exiled, marked the beginning of the modern colonial period in Indonesia. The book presents a detailed analysis of Dipanagara's pre-war visions and aspirations as a Javanese Ratu Adil ("Just King") based on his autobiography, the Babad Dipanagara, and other Javanese sources, as well as Dutch and British records. The book is concerned with the rise of Western colonial rule in Indonesia, the fate of indigenous cultures in an age of imperialism, and the role of Javanese Islam in modern Indonesian history.

The stories in Peter Carey's collection are bizarre, funny and chilling. Their landscape is exotic and surreal, an ominous near-future that has the distinct feel of contemporary life. Carey's narratives are an exhilarating blend of fable, fantasy and allegory in which, as in dreams, something odd and menacing takes control. Here are societies in which people gamble for new bodies in a genetic lottery or watch apprehensively as first buildings, then parts of the landscape, and eventually their neighbours, begin to dematerialise and vanish. Here is what happens when a miniature replica of a small town and its inhabitants assumes a more compelling reality than its original or when a group of fat men, ostracised by a revolutionary government, plot its overthrow.

Peter Carey is justly renowned for his novels, which have included the Booker Prize-winning titles Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang. He is also a dazzling writer of short stories. This volume collects together all the stories from The Fat Man in History and War Crimes as well as three other stories.

'I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silence...'To the authorities in pursuit of him, outlaw Ned Kelly is a horse thief, bank robber and police-killer. But to his fellow ordinary Australians, Kelly is their own Robin Hood. In a dazzling act of ventriloquism, Peter Carey brings the famous bushranger wildly and passionately to life.

A Long Way from Home follows Irene Bobs, a fast-driving enthusiast, and her car salesman husband as they tackle the grueling Redex Trial in 1950s Australia. This thrilling tale explores the nation's connection to its ancient culture amid the challenges of love and pain during a brutal car race.

Forget the limpid, dreamlike views we saw on the television during the Olympics, the paradise of hedonism represented by Bondi Beach and the rest; Sydney is a savage city, as violent in its setting and its weather as it is in its history. This is a brief and heartfelt account of an expatriate writer revisiting his past, examining as he does so the paradox of a blessed country with a bloody, accursed past. Above all, this book is about Australian mateship, and it is the biographies, jokes and stories of Peter's friends and contemporaries that provide the backbone.

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 bethe 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 andbarefaced 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 mostenchanting writers at work in any hemisphere. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

A special Christmas edition of Carey's best-selling novel.

This novel, by the author of Oscar and Lucinda , tells the story of a man who, recovering from death, is convinced that he is in hell. For the first time in his life, Harry Joy sees the world as it really is, and takes up a notebook to explore and note down the true nature of the Underworld.

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...