The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith

From Publishers Weekly

Australian novelist Carey presents an extravagantly picaresque tale of a vaguely futuristic and very bizarre world. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Carey creates a fully realized parallel universe in this unusual novel set in Efica, an island nation under the political and cultural domination of the larger Voorstand. Part Bildungsroman, part political allegory, and part meditation on identity, this novel traces the first 23 years of Tristan, its eponymous narrator, a hideously deformed dwarf and son of actress Felicity Smith (the head of a radical theater company and champion of Efican culture). In the novel's first half, Tristan tells of his early adventures with the company, culminating with Felicity's fatal foray into politics. In the second, he recounts his later travels in Voorstand in search of Bill Millefleur, an actor he believes to be his father. This inventive, multilayered work should only add to Carey's already considerable reputation. Highly recommended. Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.