Peter Carey’s exploration of the great adventure of American democracy, which brings to life the unusual relationship between two extraordinary characters.

Olivier is the traumatised French aristocrat who has been sent to the New World - ostensibly to study its prisons but in reality to save his neck in case of a future revolution. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerant English printer, who has been sent to protect and spy on Olivier. With the narrative shifting between the perspectives of master and servant, the adventure of American democracy unfolds, all told with Carey’s dazzling wit and inventiveness.

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2010
Published by
Faber & Faber
Publication date

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Peter Carey

Peter Carey

About the Author

Peter Carey is an Australian author who has won the Booker Prize twice, for Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang.
More about Peter Carey

Other nominated books by Peter Carey

Theft: A Love Story
True History of the Kelly Gang
Prize winner
Oscar and Lucinda
Prize winner
Illywhacker