True History of the Kelly Gang
Peter Carey · b. 1943 · Australia / United States
Why it matters
Outlaw Ned Kelly narrates his own outlawing in a barely punctuated, semi-literate voice modeled on his real Jerilderie Letter. Carey's second Booker winner turns Australia's most mythologized bushranger into an unforgettable first-person witness to his own legend.
At a glance
historical fictionpicaresque
Difficulty 6/10fast pace352 pagesUnpunctuated, phonetic vernacular voice takes a chapter or two to find its rhythm.
Deep dive
Peter Carey ventriloquizes Australia's most mythologized outlaw as a barely literate father determined to set the record straight before anyone else gets to write his story for him — and lets the prose's own ragged grammar make the case for who actually gets to narrate a nation's founding myth.
Where to go next
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