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Illywhacker cover

Illywhacker

Peter Carey

0

awards won

7

score

#1582 of 8,085 books · #262 in Historical Fiction

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize (1985) and the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (1986).

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.

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Publisher
Faber & Faber
ISBN-13
9780307764256
Topics
Australian identity and folkloreDeception and storytellingFamily saga across generations

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