Peter Carey is one of the most successful and recognized contemporary Australian authors. He was born in 1943 in the town of Bacchus Marsh, just outside of Melbourne. After studying science at Monash University, Carey worked as as a copywriter at various advertising agencies. Thankfully his writing talent was not wasted in that capacity for long.
His earlist writings were mainly short stories, including
The FatMan in History
University of Queensland Press 1974
War Crimes UQP 1979 and
Exotic Pleasures Picador 1981
Carey's first novel, Bliss UQP 1981 was made into a film directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Barry Otto. Other novels by Carey are,
Illywhacker UQP 1985
Oscar and Lucinda UQP 1988 also made into a film,
The Tax Inspector UQP 1991
The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith UQP 1994
Jack Maggs UQP 1997
True History of the Kelly Gang UQP 2000
My Life as a Fake Random House 2003
He currently lives in New York, Teaching creative writing at New York University, oh and did I mention that his books are really good?