Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

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

Its portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight’s renegade Eastend mob 2007 on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other. 

Wright’s storytelling is operatic and surreal: a blend of myth and scripture, politics and farce. 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.

The author:-

Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

She is the author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria, The Swan Book, and, most recently, Praiseworthy. Her works of non-fiction include Take Power, an oral history of the Central Land Council; Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in the Northern Territory; and Tracker, the award-winning collective memoir of Aboriginal leader, Tracker Tilmouth.

Wright’s books have been published widely overseas, and have won many numerous literary awards. She is distinguished for winning the Miles Franklin and the Stella Prize twice. 

Originally published in 2006 - this is a recent edition to coincide with the publication of Praiseworthy.

ISBN: 9781922725400

Published: May 2023

Publisher: Giramondo

528 pages

19.7 x 13 cm