“Irresistible…intimate and theatrical…supple and surprising…We’re in the hands of a master storyteller.”
—Carol Shields, author of The Stone Diaries
“Carey has vaulted to the top ranks of writers in the English-speaking world…Tristan has an appeal that transcends geography.”
—Newsday
“Carey’s always magical, absolutely lovable narrative voice makes The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith an important contribution to contemporary fiction …No matter what he decides to write or how he decides to write it, it’s a privilege to read him.”
—Carolyn See, Washington Post Book World
“Savage and hilarious …dazzling.”
—The New York Review of Books
“A prickly futurist fantasy … gaudy…extravagant.”
—Los Angeles Times
“His books have an odd, tangential beauty, an airy poise – Hogarth by way of Chagall…Carey’s fund of stories seems so inexhaustible that he should seriously think of making charitable donations to the needy …His need to fall head over heels for each and every one of his characters is one of his greatest strengths as a novelist.”
—The New Yorker
“A rich, wry and funny novel of perseverance over physical, societal and family deformities.”
—Boston Globe
“Captivating [and] evocative …a compelling story…Most accomplished.”
—Miami Herald
“Carey’s most inventive book yet – surpassing even The Tax Inspector and the Booker Prize-winning Oscar & Lucinda …The book is like a fantastical, action-packed dream -you just don’t want it to end.”
—Details
“Given Peter Carey’s bubbling imagination and intoxicating language, any new novel from the Australian author is an event… A cross between John Irving’s A Son of the Circus and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent…This novel is a cleverly detailed imagining of a possible future.”
—San Francisco Chronicle