Prizes

Winner of The Commonwealth Writer's Prize Best Book South East Asia and South Pacific 1998 and The Commonwealth Writers Prize 1998. Shortlisted for WH Smith Literary Prize 1998 and Book Data/ABA Book of the Year Award 1997.

Radiant. Peter Carey's narrative rushes like a great stream toward a glittery falls, gathering momentum as it rolls. --The Boston Globe A rousing old-fashioned narrative. . . . [that] stands on its own as an adventure story. -- The New York Times Book Review We have a great novelist living on the planet with us, and his name is Peter Carey. --Los Angeles Times Book Review Imaginative and audacious . . . A twentieth-century, post-colonial Dickens novel . . . This strange, bold, gripping, and wonderful novel is the story of a power struggle, a double love story, a quest story, and a story of trickery and disguise. It's about taking possession--of an inheritance, of another person's soul, of your own destiny--and being taken possession of. Not least, it's the story of one writer's being possessed by another. --Hermione Lee, The Observer Uncommonly exciting and engaging. As much as anyone now writing, Peter Carey is a master of storytelling. His empathy with his characters, combined with his psychological sharp-sightedness, has them almost jumping off the page in full human complexity. An especial bonus is his style . . . Vivid, exact, unexpected images and language match the quick, witty intelligence flickering through this novel, and make it a triumph of ebullient indictment, humane insight, and creative generosity. --Peter Kemp, Sunday Times (London) Writing and philosophical contemplations of the highest order . . . On a par with, and more interesting than, his two earlier masterpieces . . . An absorbing, beautifully written novel finished off with a most satisfactory happy ending, and with incidents, an atmosphere, and ideas that lingerin the mind. --Carmen Callil, The Daily Telegraph From the Trade Paperback edition.