Peter Carey

Author profile

born

May 07, 1943 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia

gender

male

website

http://petercareybooks.com/

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.

In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.

For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends,...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.

In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.

For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.

After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.

From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.

In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.

He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.

In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
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Books by Peter Carey

Average rating: 3.57 · 20,237 ratings · 2,417 reviews · 33 distinct works

	Oscar And Lucinda 3.67 avg rating — 4,985 ratings — published 1988 — 32 editions	My rating:
	True History of the Kelly Gang 3.76 avg rating — 4,449 ratings — published 2000 — 39 editions	My rating:
	Parrot and Olivier in America 3.42 avg rating — 2,482 ratings — published 2009 — 30 editions	My rating:
	Theft: A Love Story 3.38 avg rating — 1,269 ratings — published 2006 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Jack Maggs 3.60 avg rating — 1,153 ratings — published 1993 — 22 editions	My rating:
	My Life as a Fake 3.32 avg rating — 1,221 ratings — published 2003 — 31 editions	My rating:
	His Illegal Self 3.15 avg rating — 1,070 ratings — published 2007 — 26 editions	My rating:
	Bliss 3.72 avg rating — 769 ratings — 13 editions	My rating:
	Illywhacker 3.72 avg rating — 694 ratings — published 1985 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Wrong About Japan 3.11 avg rating — 558 ratings — 13 editions	My rating:

More books by Peter Carey…

Series by Peter Carey

O Escritor e a Cidade (1 book)
by Peter Carey, Colin Dickerman (Editor)

3.45 avg rating — 124 ratings

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Interviews

April 2012, Peter Carey
"Journey into the storied Black Forest with Carey's latest work, The Chemistry of Tears, about a grieving museum expert and the 19th-century automaton she must revive." ...More

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Quotes by Peter Carey

“To know you will be lonely is not the same as being lonely.”
― Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda

tags: australia , fiction

17 people liked it

“You could not tell a story like this. A story like this you could only feel.”
― Peter Carey, Oscar And Lucinda

11 people liked it

“But now she could not bear the way she sounded. She was not a person anyone could love.

...

And thus fled to her room. There she wept, bitterly, an ugly sound punctuated by great gulps. She could not stop herself. She could hear his footsteps in the passage outside. He walked up and down, up and down.

'Come in,' she prayed. 'Oh dearest, do come in.'

But he did not come in. He would not come in. This was the man she had practically contracted to give away her fortune to. He offered to marry her as a favour and then he would not even come into her room.

Later, she could smell him make himself a sweet pancake for his lunch. She thought this a childish thing to eat, and selfish, too. If he were a gentleman he would now come to her room and save her from the prison her foolishness had made for her. He did not come. She heard him pacing in his room.”
― Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda

tags: australia , fiction

9 people liked it

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Polls

Which author should we read next?

J.R.R. Tolkien

4 votes, 50.0%

Neil Gaiman

2 votes, 25.0%

Nick Hornby

1 vote, 12.5%

Charlotte Bronte

1 vote, 12.5%

Peter Carey

0 votes, 0.0%

Charles Dickens

0 votes, 0.0%

Kari Hotakainen

0 votes, 0.0%

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0 votes, 0.0%

Dr Seuss

0 votes, 0.0%

8 total votes

4 comments

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Peter's Fans (162)

Peter Carey

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combine editionsBooks by Peter Carey

Series by Peter Carey

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Interviews

Quotes by Peter Carey

Polls

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Videos

combine editions
Books by Peter Carey