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In Australian slang, an illywhacker is a country fair con man, an unprincipled seller of fake diamonds and dubious tonics. And Herbert Badgery, the 139-year-old narrator of Peter Carey's uproarious novel, may be the king of them all. Vagabond and charlatan, aviator and car salesman, seducer and patriarch, Badgery is a walking embodiment of the Australian national character—espcially of its proclivity for tall stories and barefaced lies. As Carey follows this charming scoundrel across a continent and a century, he creates a crazy quilt of outlandish encounters, with characters that include a genteel dowager who fends off madness with an electric belt and a ravishing young girl with a dangerous fondness for rooftop trysts. Boldly inventive, irresistibly odd, Illywhacker is further proof that Peter Carey is one of the most enchanting writers at work in any hemisphere.

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"I was electioneering. By God, people were listening. People were looking my way. And some joker with his arse begining to ache from sitting too long on a nail had to clear his throat and chip in, "Backstrom, what have you got to offer?" I looked at the speaker and saw he was a farmer and I said, "Mister, how would you like some rain?" A new edition of another classic from one of Canada's most enduring novelists. Introduction by Thomas Wharton.

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Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, this novel explores love, obsession and stranger danger. Wallace is a door-to-door salesman. When he meets six-year-old Jania, his life gains a new dimension. He is in love. This is 'pure' adoration. Or is it? Esther, reluctant grandmother, is too self-absorbed to notice the drama that is about to break. Innocence carries its own dangers: love grows where least expected. The little girl might have some answers of her own, but who will listen?