Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

Book Description

Secondhand. Near fine condition. UK edition.

Carpentaria is an epic of the Gulf country of north-western Queensland.

Set in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance, Carpentaria is the unforgettable portrait of the powerful Phantom family, leaders of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight’s renegade Eastend mob and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine.

The novel teems with extraordinary characters – the outcast saviour Elias Smith, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, the murderous mayor Bruiser, the moth-ridden Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist 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 – figures of such an intense imagining, they stand like giants in this storm-swept world.