For Peter Carey, a trip to Japan with his twelve-year-old son Charley would be a unique opportunity to share and learn something about his son's passion for Japanese comics and animated film, otherwise known as manga and anime.
Peter Carey is the multi-award-winning author of eight novels, plus two highly acclaimed collections of short stories and a memoir, WRONG ABOUT JAPAN. His books have won or been short-listed for every major literary award in Australia. He has won the Booker Prize twice - in 2001 for TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG, and in 1988 for OSCAR AND LUCINDA. In 1998 he won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for JACK MAGGS, and won it again in 2001 for TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG. Born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Peter Carey now lives in New York.
Novelist Carey is a two-time Booker Prize winner (Oscar and Lucinda; True History of the Kelly Gang), and although his latest work is presented as nonfiction, his fiction readers won't be disappointed. This travel diary reads like a scintillating novella, and Carey has, in fact, added his own fictional embellishments to the real-life events he reports. After his shy 12-year-old son, Charley, began reading English translations of Japanese manga, their Saturday mornings at the Manhattan comic book store Forbidden Planet spurred Carey's own interest. As their "cultural investigation" of manga and anime widened, "the kid who would never talk in class was now brimming with new ideas he wasn't shy to discuss." This father-son bond deepened when they flew to Japan to meet manga artists and anime directors, including Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam). At publisher Kodansha, they learned of manga's history, and touring Studio Ghibli, they encountered the "most famous anime director in the world," Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away). Their guide to Tokyo's cartoon culture was Takashi, a teenager the narrative says Charley met online (yet, as Carey revealed in a newspaper interview, he created the imaginary character of Takashi because the narrative needed conflict, and Carey wanted to avoid "conflict with anybody in real life"). Carey's fluid and engaging writing style gets a boost from 25 energetic b&w anime/manga illustrations. Agent, Amanda Urban. (Jan. 11) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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