'Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang purports to transcribe documents, 'thirteen parcels of stained and dog-eared papers,' in which the celebrated outlaw, on the run, set down for the benefit of his daughter (whom he was destined never to see) a heartfelt account and justification of his short and violent life. With this mythic outlaw and the story of his mighty travails and exploits, and with all the force of a classic Western, Peter Carey has breathed life into a historical figure who transcends all borders and embodies tragedy, perseverance, and freedom. Still his country's most powerful legend, Ned Kelly is here chiefly a man in full: devoted son, loving husband, fretful father, and loyal friend, now speaking as if from the grave. In the end, however, she served out her sentence in the same Melbourne prison where, in 1880, her son was hanged. He declined to flee overseas when he could, bound to win his jailed mother's freedom by any means possible, including his own surrender. With his brothers and two friends, Kelly eluded a massive police manhunt for twenty months, living by his wits and strong heart, supplementing his bushwhacking skills with ingenious bank robberies while enjoying the support of most everyone not in uniform. To the authorities, this son of dirt-poor Irish immigrants was a born thief and, ultimately, a cold-blooded murderer to most other Australians, he was a scapegoat and patriot persecuted by 'English' landlords and their agents. This is Ned Kelly's true confession, in his own words and written on the run for an infant daughter he has never seen. Exhilarating, hilarious, panoramic, and immediately engrossing, it is also-at a distance of many thousand miles and more than a century-a Great American Novel. Out of nineteenth-century Australia rides a hero of his people and a man for all nations, in this masterpiece by the Booker Prize-winning author of Oscar and Lucinda and Jack Maggs.

Peter carey true history