True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel

I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and willcontain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.

In True History of the Kelly Gang, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling hisnarrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, thelowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger 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 saw hisfirst prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlawtale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Ned Kelly, the son of Irish immigrants, outlaw, and legendary nineteenth-century Australian folk-hero, describes in his own words how he, his brother, and two friends led authorities on a twenty-month manhunt, marked by widespread populist support, before his capture and execution. By the Booker Prize-winning author of Oscar & Lucinda. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.

Peter Carey lives in New York City.

Born in Australia in 1943, Peter Carey lives in New York City with his wife, Alison Summers, and their two sons. The author of six previous novels and a collection of stories, he won the Booker Prize for Oscar and Lucinda; his other honors include the Commonwealth Prize and the Miles Franklin Award.

Peter Carey's Jack Maggs, Oscar and Lucinda, The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Bliss, Illywhacker, The Fat Man in History, and The Tax Inspector are available in Vintage paperback.

From the Hardcover edition.