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Peter Carey

Born

in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia

May 07, 1943

Website

http://petercareybooks.com/

Genre

Fiction

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Not all books on this profile are by the same author. 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 Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Not all books on this profile are by the same author. 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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Peter Carey's Blog

Peter Carey isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Peter Carey on Ned Kelly: ‘Did no one see what I saw, that our famous bushranger was a raging poet?’

Twenty-five years after his award-winning book was published, the Australian author revisits True History of the Kelly Gang

How very weird to return to this old manuscript, the scene of so much doubt and anguish, not to say obsession.

I was a baby when the seed was planted, three years out of school, two years since my devastating failure in the first year of a science degree. I had drifted into adv

Combine Editions
Peter Carey’s books

Average rating: 3.62 · 94,319 ratings · 8,267 reviews · 102 distinct works • Similar authors

	True History of the Kelly Gang 3.83 avg rating — 24,176 ratings — published 2000 — 56 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Oscar and Lucinda 3.73 avg rating — 21,813 ratings — published 1988 — 108 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Parrot and Olivier in America 3.44 avg rating — 7,604 ratings — published 2009 — 66 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jack Maggs 3.69 avg rating — 4,434 ratings — published 1997 — 76 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bliss 3.76 avg rating — 3,581 ratings — published 1981 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Long Way From Home 3.50 avg rating — 3,778 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Chemistry of Tears 2.96 avg rating — 4,236 ratings — published 2012 — 75 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Theft: A Love Story 3.43 avg rating — 3,616 ratings — published 2006 — 67 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Life as a Fake 3.38 avg rating — 3,618 ratings — published 2003	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Illywhacker 3.78 avg rating — 3,092 ratings — published 1985 — 54 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Peter Carey…

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Interview with 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...

Polls

September 2021 New School Classic Group Read

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, 1961, 150 pages

56 votes, 26.3%

Blindness by José Saramago, 1995, 326 pages

53 votes, 24.9%

Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham, 1930, 308 pages

30 votes, 14.1%

The Bone People by Keri Hulme, 1984, 450 pages

24 votes, 11.3%

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer, 1926, 352 pages

19 votes, 8.9%

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, 1987, 277 pages

18 votes, 8.5%

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, 1988, 515 pages

13 votes, 6.1%

213 total votes

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