True History of the Kelly Gang

Summary

Carey ventriloquises the voice of the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, presenting the novel as a stash of letters written by Kelly to the daughter he will never meet. The unpunctuated, near-illiterate vernacular gives the bushranger's life a raw immediacy, blending myth, grievance, and tenderness. It is at once a folk epic and an interrogation of how nations build heroes from outlaws.