PETER CAREY, HOMESICK AUTHOR - report from Brisbane's Courier Mail.
This detail is painstakingly reflected in his writing with the geographic distance helping shape the contemplation of his homeland in works such as True History of the Kelly Gang and Theft: A Love Story.
Carey will divulge only the title of his forthcoming novel, His Illegal Self. Publishers' websites offer tantalisingly few clues. Random House Canada's site says the novel is set in 1972 and centres on Che, a precocious seven-year-old, who leads a bourgeois life on Park Avenue with his eccentric grandmother because his young radical parents are in hiding from the FBI.
CELEBRATED expatriate author Peter Carey is in a good place. He's deep into another work, enjoying a crisp, upstate New York wine at one of his favourite haunts in SoHo, and preparing to launch his 10th novel, His Illegal Self.
Carey, the award-winning novelist who has given memorable voice to a collection of original and eccentric characters, will unveil the new book at Adelaide Writers Week in March.
The internationally renowned festival also hands Carey a long-awaited opportunity to introduce the country of his birth to his literary mates.
The internationally renowned festival also hands Carey a long-awaited opportunity to introduce the country of his birth to his literary mates.
Years ago, Carey confides, he had a plan to organise a writers' tour around Australia – a kind of cultural expedition to show off his homeland to his friends and to introduce them to Australians.
The tour never got off the ground for one reason or another, says Carey.
The tour never got off the ground for one reason or another, says Carey.
Adelaide Writers Week will be a boiled-down Down Under excursion for Carey's friends, including New York authors Paul Auster and his wife, Siri Hustvedt, Ian McEwan, his wife, Annalena McAfee, and Patrick McGrath.
"We'll have a really nice time in Adelaide," Carey adds.
"We'll have a really nice time in Adelaide," Carey adds.
He has spent nearly two decades living in New York, but says one never loses a sense of being Australian.
"People tend to think you do and also, I realise now, that I've got a kid who was born here who is 17. So I've been here 17, almost 18 years. In my mind it's not like that at all," he says. "I occupy that space all the time in my head but, of course, 18 years is a long way to be away, so obviously it's tough. But in my head I'm an Australian and I can't not be and I am in a very detailed sort of way."
"People tend to think you do and also, I realise now, that I've got a kid who was born here who is 17. So I've been here 17, almost 18 years. In my mind it's not like that at all," he says. "I occupy that space all the time in my head but, of course, 18 years is a long way to be away, so obviously it's tough. But in my head I'm an Australian and I can't not be and I am in a very detailed sort of way."
This detail is painstakingly reflected in his writing with the geographic distance helping shape the contemplation of his homeland in works such as True History of the Kelly Gang and Theft: A Love Story.
Carey will divulge only the title of his forthcoming novel, His Illegal Self. Publishers' websites offer tantalisingly few clues. Random House Canada's site says the novel is set in 1972 and centres on Che, a precocious seven-year-old, who leads a bourgeois life on Park Avenue with his eccentric grandmother because his young radical parents are in hiding from the FBI.
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