30 Days in Sydney: The Writer and the City (The writer & the city) [Hardcover]

With admirable enterprise, Bloomsbury books have asked a number of top writers to describe the city they love most; 30 Days in Sydney represents Peter Carey's turn with a unique take on the Aussie metropolis.

Subtitled "a wildly distorted account" it is pretty much that: an oblique, poignant, entertaining and rather candid look at the city. Using his prize-winning novelist's eye for telling detail, and the objectivity of the relative outsider (Carey has spent the last decade in New York, and he hails from Melbourne), the author shows that Sydney is not just about sun, sports, gay sex and Sydney Harbour Bridge. It's also about endangered wildlife, painful history, militant agnosticism and, above all, a wilful, dogged, brave, funny, cantankerous citizenry. As Carey trots around town we get to meet a few of these hard-bitten "diggers"; their individuality and orneriness are deftly sketched.

If there is a criticism of the book it's that it's all too brief. 240 smallish pages is a diminutive canvas on which to paint a portrait of such a diversely sprawling place. One might, for instance, have wished to know more about multicultural Sydney, and perhaps a bit more about the cockatoos and koalas which yet inhabit the city's remoter reaches. But this is still an agreeable pocket companion for anyone intending a trip to the Big City Down Under. --Sean Thomas

"...gets right under the skin of the city to give the reader a unique take on the metropolis and its people."

'this is a hymn of praise to Sydney and to its people. A little book, but an incredibly rich one.'

"It is a vintage performance. He makes you want to get on the next Qantas flight out of Heathrow."

After living in New York for ten years novelist Peter Carey returned home to Sydney with the idea of capturing its ebullient character via the four elements. 'I would never seek to define Manhattan by asking my New York friends for stories of Earth and Air and Fire and Water,' he writes, 'but that is exactly what was in my mind as I walked through immigration at Kingsford Smith International Airport.' But Carey's friends turn out to be anarchic characters each of whom has had his own very individual ways of story-telling. Carey draws the reader helplessly into a wild and wonderful journey of discovery and re-discovery. Reading this book is a very physical experience, as bracing as the famous Southerly buster that sometimes batters Sydney's beauteous shores. Famous visual extravaganzas such as Bondi Beach, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the Blue Mountains all take on a strange new intensity when exposed to the penetrating gaze of Peter and his friends. "Thirty Days In Sydney" offers the reader a private glimpse behind the glittering facades and the venetian blinds. It will exhilarate and enchant all who visit.

author biography
Peter Carey was born in Bacchus Marsh, Australia in 1943. For the last ten years he has lived in New York with his wife, Alison Summers, and their two sons. His books have won every major Australian litery award, including the Miles Franklin (3 times) and the National Book Council Award (3 times). His 1985 novel Illywhacker was shortlisted for the Booker prize. His next novel (Oscar and Lucinda, 1988) won the Booker prize. Jack Maggs (1997) won the Commonwealth prize. His latest novel is True History of the Kelly Gang.

Peter Carey is the author of seven highly acclaimed novels including the 1988 winner of the Booker Prize, OSCAR AND LUCINDA. His latest novel is TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG. He lives in New York with his wife Alison Summers and their two sons.