Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2015
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
When Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm into Australia's prison computer system, hundreds of asylum-seekers walk free. And because the Americans run the prisons (let's be honest: as they do in so many parts of her country) the doors of some five thousand jails in the United States also open. Is this a mistake, or a declaration of cyber war? And does it have anything to do with the largely forgotten Battle of Brisbane between American and Australian forces in 1942? Or with the CIA-influenced coup in Australia in 1975? Felix Moore, known to himself as "our sole remaining left-wing journalist," is determined to write Gaby's biography in order to find the answers—to save her, his own career, and, perhaps, his country. But how to get Gaby—on the run, scared, confused, and angry—to cooperate?
Bringing together the world of hackers and radicals with the "special relationship" between the United States and Australia, and Australia and the CIA, Amnesia is a novel that speaks powerfully about the often hidden past—but most urgently about the more and more hidden present.
BookBrowse Review
"Certainly a good, intelligent book with a darkly funny writer at the center of it. The problem is that a true appreciation of it depends on your familiarity with Australian politics - tension with American soldiers during WWII, the
political unrest of 1975. Contrary to the book-jacket blurb, it isn't
really a thriller at all, so the motivation of an exciting plot isn't there. It's really about how a writer puts together 'the truth' out of research and testimony and imagination. All in all, an interesting novel some parts of which could be a stretch for an American audience." - Jennifer Wilder
Other Reviews
"Throughout the book, Carey's cartwheeling prose and dazzling intellect can be challenging to keep up with, but the book is worth the effort." - Publishers Weekly
"The novel overall is baggy, shifting from coder-speak to blunt dialogue to reportage. History is a complicated web, Carey reminds us, but this one is particularly sticky. A relatively forgettable entry in a top-shelf novelist's oeuvre." - Kirkus
"The brilliant Australian author explores digital activism, legacy journalism, US political interference and Australia's collective forgetfulness about its past in this probing but rollicking novel...Amnesia crackles with energy, inventive in its language (not least in its profanities) but never pretentious, emphasizing the value of straight talking and laughter." - Sunday Express (UK)
"Peter Carey is such a varied and intriguing novelist there are times when it seems he can write anything... [Amnesia is] exhilarating. It even has a viral twist at the end. As I said, Peter Carey can do anything." - The Independent (UK)
"Amnesia is exhilaratingly suffused with Carey's wild prodigality of invention....Amnesia glitters with nervy verbal inventiveness and pungent characterization. Carey conjures the longings and anxieties of his wayward teenaged idealists with the same pathos and precision with which he depicts the pains and disillusions of middle age." - Evening Standard (UK)
"A novel about the new American empire and its repercussions around the world, about technology and, most movingly, about family. It is slippery and compelling, written with the vivid precision that marks Mr. Carey's best work... Mr. Carey, who has already won the Man Booker prize twice should be in with a chance for a third prize next year." - The Economist (UK)
"All kinds of political trickery is afoot in this indignant, robustly and funny novel." - The Sunday Times (UK)
"A tale of betrayal, paranoia and conspiracy...Amnesia is at once a bold account of Australia's uncomfortable and slippery relationship with the United States and an ambitious meditation on the writer's uncomfortable and slippery relationship with facts and their audience...A terrific book." - The Independent (UK)
"Like many of Carey's books, Amnesia generates an aura of the fantastical but is completely grounded; it is high-spirited but serious, hectic but never hasty... It responds to some of the biggest issues of our time, and reminds us that no other contemporary novelist is better able to mix farce with ferocity, or to better effect." - The Guardian (UK)
This information about Amnesia was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Maron Ettlinger
Peter Carey was born in 1943, in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. His parents, who had a General Motors dealership, sent him to Geelong Grammar School, one of the leading private schools, "where the children of Australia's Best Families all spoke with English accents". He studied briefly at Monash University, but left after failing his first year science exams, after which he left to work as a copyrighter in advertising agencies in Melbourne and London. He started to read passionately, especially the work of Joyce, Beckett, Kafka and Faulkner, and in 1964 he began to write. He moved to Sydney in 1974 where he continued copyrighting. His first collection of surreal short stories, War Crimes, was published in 1979, followed by The Fat Man in History in 1980.
He then wrote three ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Peter Carey's Website
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
