Name: Carpentaria
ISBN: 9781439157848

Alexis Wright

A tale inspired by the plight of the Australian Aborigines follows a clash between a powerful family, tribe leaders and mobsters in a sparsely populated northern Queensland town, a conflict marked by the machinations of a religious zealot, a murderous politician and an impassioned activist. Reprint

A Novel

Carpentaria

Set in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance, Carpentaria is the unforgettable portrait of the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight's renegade Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other. By turns operatic and surreal, Wright's stunning and richly imagined storytelling is a blend of myth and scripture, farce and politics. Her extraordinary characters - Elias Smith the outcast saviour, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, the murderous mayor Stan Bruiser, the moth-ridden Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist and prodigal son Will Phantom, and above all, the rulers of the family, the queen of the rubbish-dump and the fish-embalming king of time, Angel Day and Normal Phantom - stride like giants in this storm-swept world.

lucinda ventimiglia

A tale inspired by the plight of the Australian Aborigines follows a clash between a powerful family, tribe leaders, and mobsters in a sparsely populated northern Queensland town, a conflict marked by the machinations of a religious zealot, a murderous politician, and an activist.

Taylor Conacher

In a fractious Aboriginal community in northern Queensland, the powerful Phantom family copes with cyclones, eccentric characters and a long standing feud. They retain the sovereignty over the land that sets the Pricklebush people into factions. In the neighbouring towns' white officials and miners are trying to hide violence and murder.

Carpentaria A Novel

Reviews

Highlights