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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
From the two-time Booker Prize–winning author and recipient of the Commonwealth Prize comes this new novel about obsession, deception, and redemption, at once an engrossing psychological suspense story and a work of highly charged, fiendishly funny literary fiction.
Michael 'Butcher' Boone is an ex-'really famous' painter now reduced to living in the remote country house of his biggest collector and acting as caretaker for his younger brother, Hugh, a damaged man of imposing physicality and childlike emotions. Together they've forged a delicate equilibrium, a balance instantly disarrayed when a mysterious young woman named Marlene walks out of a rainstorm and into their lives. Beautiful, smart, and ambitious, she's also the daughter-in-law of the late great painter Jacques Liebowitz, one of Butcher's earliest influences. She's sweet to Hugh and falls in love with Butcher, and they reciprocate in kind. And she sets in motion a chain of events that could be the making--or the ruin--of them all. (Source: Trove)
Notes
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Epigraph: Am, I to be king, or just a pig? -Gustave Flaubert, Intimate Notebook.
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Epigraph: Joachim had been born before the war, in the years when children still had to learn by heart the thirteen reasons for using a capital letter. To these he had added one more of his own, which was that he would, in all circumstances, do exactly what he wished. -Macado Fernandez, One Man.
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Dedication: For Bel.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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The Novel Road to the Global South : Australian Fiction, International Exposure and the Transnational Politics of Disadvantage
2023
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023; -
The Vulgar Reader
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2015; -
Lives of Artists, Identities of Countries : Dependence, Displacement, Identity, and Australia in Peter Carey’s 'Theft'
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Engaging with Literature of Commitment : The Worldly Scholar (Volume 2) 2012; (p. 245-256) 'After My Life as a Fake, Peter Carey, with his novel Theft, adds a new dimension to his themes of fakery, truth and lying. The novel reads as a combination of love story, detective novel, and thriller with a series of mysteries including an intricate plot which is further combined with and supplemented by another theme and symbolic level...' (From author's introduction 245) -
Wrong About Carey? : Reading Carey in Post-Postmodern Times
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Rewriting History : Peter Carey's Fictional Biography of Australia 2010; (p. 285-298) -
A Concise History of the Deckle
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 69 no. 2 2010; (p. 13)
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Dazzling Dashes Full of Manic Mysteries
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 1 April 2006; (p. 11-12)
— Review of Theft : A Love Story 2006 single work novel -
Carey's Adrenalin Rush on the Art World
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 1-2 April 2006; (p. 23)
— Review of Theft : A Love Story 2006 single work novel -
Glorious Character
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 1 April 2006; (p. 10)
— Review of Theft : A Love Story 2006 single work novel -
Carey's Ripper Mystery Keeps You Laughing
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 1 April 2006; (p. 9)
— Review of Theft : A Love Story 2006 single work novel -
Grit of a Great
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8-9 April 2006; (p. 11-12)
— Review of Theft : A Love Story 2006 single work novel -
Art of the Long Lunch
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 1 April 2006; (p. 11) -
A Love-Hate Story
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 1-2 April 2006; (p. 6-7) -
Love, Lies and Masterpieces
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 April 2006; (p. 4) -
Bones to Pick with Arts Real Frauds
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Age , 1 April 2006; (p. 26) -
Carey Changes in Space and Times
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 8 April 2006; (p. 10)
Awards
- 2008 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2007 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- 2007 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
- 2007 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 2007 shortlisted Commonwealth Writers Prize Commonwealth Book Prize — Best Book — South East Asia and South Pacific Region
- Sydney, New South Wales,
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Manhattan,
New York (City),
New York (State),
cUnited States of America (USA),cAmericas,
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Tokyo,
Honshu,
cJapan,cEast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- Bellingen, Dorrigo - Bellingen area, New England, New South Wales,
- Bacchus Marsh, Bacchus Marsh - Ballan area, Melbourne - Outer West / North West, Melbourne, Victoria,