Where to start with Peter Carey

Australian novelist, born 1943. Won the Booker Prize in 1988 and 2001.

Best Peter Carey book to start with: Oscar and Lucinda (1988), on 3 of the 17 lists it could have made.

Oscar and Lucinda, his first Booker winner, from 1988, is the best place to start. It follows two obsessive gamblers in the 19th century, an English clergyman and an Australian heiress, and it is the most rounded and generous of his novels.

True History of the Kelly Gang won the Booker in 2001 and tells the story of the outlaw Ned Kelly in his own rough, barely punctuated voice. The style takes a few pages to get used to, and then it runs. Parrot and Olivier in America, shortlisted for the Booker and the National Book Award in 2010, is lighter, a story of an aristocrat and his servant in the United States, and a good choice if the Kelly voice puts you off.

Illywhacker, shortlisted for the Booker in 1985, is the early one, a long comic tale told by a liar, and it is best left until you know you like him. A Long Way From Home was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2019 and follows a car race around Australia, so it suits readers who want an adventure.