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Bliss - Peter Carey

$12.95

Author - Peter Carey
Printed in 2001 (originally published 1981) by Faber & Faber, UK
Softcover, 354 Pages
Size - 20cm * 13.5cm

Peter Carey's hero is a happy innocent; he remembers his childhood as a Vision Splendid, indulges his wife and children, and is universally regarded as a Good Bloke. Then he dies - only for nine minutes, it's a heart attack - and wakes up in Hell. His wife is unfaithful, his partner's a rat, his son pushes drugs, his daughter sells herself, his advertising company promotes products that cause cancer.

Against these torments Carey provides a saviour: hippy Honey Barbara, pantheist, healer, whore. Honey is to Harry as Isis is to Osiris. Together they conquer Hell and retire to the forest where their children inherit the legend of paradise regained...

Peter Carey was born in Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, Australia, in 1943. He studied Science at Monash University, and wrote advertising copy to support himself during the early part of his literary career. Australian identity and historical context play a part in several of his literary works.

`A remarkable novel.' - Spectator

`Carey is one of the great story-tellers of our time, the kind who make you take the phone off the hook, forget the television and ignore the doorbell.' - Evening Standard

`Carey is funny, humane and at times profound . . . a remarkable tour de force.' - Literary Review

"A glittering style and an acerbic wit...Peter Carey shows his command of black humour and modern fable" - The Times

"An imaginative blend of realism and fantasy...a very good novel indeed" - Daily Telegraph

"A political novel of a very original sort. Carey writes with dazzling comic flair" - Time Out