Peter Carey’s contemporary classic is a dazzling comic account of one man’s unbelievable exploits across the Australian continent.

Herbert Badgery, a 139-year-old car salesman and snake-fancier, is torn between the desire to be a good man and his need to attract people by means of his fantastic lies. Subjects of his outrageous untruths include, but are not limited to: bush pilots, fan dancers, communists, schoolteachers and exotic bird dealers.

Shortlisted
The Booker Prize 1985
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

Parrot and Olivier in America
Theft: A Love Story
True History of the Kelly Gang
Prize winner
Oscar and Lucinda
Prize winner