Jack Maggs by Peter Carey

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Sunning to pages and inside covers. Body text and binding are still very good.

The year is 1837, and a stranger is prowling London. He is Jack Maggs, an illegal returnee from the prison island of Australia. He has the demeanour of a savage and the skills of a hardened criminal, and he is risking his life in seeking vengeance and reconciliation.

Installing himself within the household of the genteel grocer Percy Buckle, Maggs soon attracts the attention of a cross section of London society. Saucy Mercy Larkin wants him for a mate. The writer Tobias Oates wants to possess his soul through hypnosis.

But Maggs is obsessed with his own plan. And as all the various schemes converge, Maggs rises into the centre, a dark, looming figure, at once frightening, mysterious, and compelling.