In Amnesia, journalist Felix Moore is obsessed with forgotten moments in Australian history: the 1942 "Battle of Brisbane" and the "bloodless coup" of 1975. Ned Kelly writes his testimony against "lies and silences," yet the novel constantly undermines its own claims to truth. "This history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false," Ned Kelly writes in True History of the Kelly Gang (Carey's second Booker win). The theme of untrustworthy, questionable, hidden and forgotten histories runs through Carey's books.
"I learned long ago to distrust local history," the unnamed narrator says in Oscar and Lucinda, Carey's first novel to win the Booker Prize. It's a question that should be entirely familiar to Canadians. Carey arguably implicates himself here – a question not of guilt for historical events, but of responsibility for the past he has inherited. What sets A Long Way from Home apart is its level of attention to aboriginal people and whether his handling of the past here represents a potential turn in his work. It's a perfect set-up to interrogate Australia and just how much realness these characters can take.Ĭarey has a long concern with Australian history and has never ignored its colonial legacy. Irene and Titch Bobs plan on opening a dealership selling the GM Holden, "Australia's Own Car." As a marketing ploy, the Bobses – along with their Teutonic neighbour, Willie – enter the Redex Trial, billed as a journey through "real" Australia – not a race but a test of everyday cars' reliability under punishing conditions, 15,400 kilometres around the country. Peter Carey's 14th novel is a road trip through Australian colonialism, a story of divergent paths and choices about what to do with the past.Ī Long Way from Home opens in the author's hometown of Bacchus Marsh, just outside Melbourne.
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