True History of the Kelly Gang

Peter Carey, Booker Prize-winning author of Oscar and Lucinda, powerfully evokes the legend of nineteenth-century Australian outlaw Ned Kelly in this novel narrated in defiantly descriptive prose by the barely literate bushranger himself. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, he is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned sees his first prison cell at fifteen and by the age of twenty-six has become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he is finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.

Review :
"A spectacular feat of imagination."-"The Boston Globe "Vastly entertaining.... Triumphantly eclectic, as if Huck Finn and Shakespeare had joined forces to prettify the legend of Jesse James."-"The New York Times "The ingenuity, empathy, and poetic ear that the novelist brings to his feat of imposture cannot be rated too high."-John Updike, "The New Yorker "Carey succeeds in creating an account that not only feels authentic but also passes as a serious novel and solid, old-fashioned 'entertainment.' A big, meaty novel, blending Dickens and Cormac McCarthy with a distinctly Australian strain of melancholy."-"San Francisco Chronicle "Abravura performance.... Rewards the persistent reader with a powerful emotional experience."-"The Wall Street Journal "Carey's pen writes with an ink that is two parts archaic and one part modern and colors a prose that rocks and cajoles the reader into a certainty that Ned Kelly is fit company not only for Jack Palance and Clint Eastwood but for Thomas Jefferson and perhaps even a bodhisattva."-"Los Angeles Times "The power and charm of [this book] arise not from fidelity to facts but rather from the voice Carey invents for Ned Kelly...."-"Time "So adroit that you never doubt it's Kelly's own words you're reading in the headlong, action-packed story."-"Newsweek "This novel is worth our best attention."-"The "Washington Post Book World "An avalanche of a novel.... Cary has raised a national legend to the level of an international myth."-"Christian Science Monitor "Packed with incident, alive with comedy and pathos . . . contains pretty much everything you could ask of a novel." -"The New YorkTimes Book Review "The ingenuity, empathy, and poetic ear that the novelist brings to his feat of imposture cannot be rated too high." -John Updike, "The New Yorker "Carey's pen writes with an ink that is two parts archaic and one part modern and colors a prose that rocks and cajoles the reader into a certainty that Ned Kelly is fit company not only for Jack Palance and Clint Eastwood but for Thomas Jefferson and perhaps even a bodhisattva." -"Los Angeles Times