{"version":"1.0","type":"link","provider_name":"Hardcover","provider_url":"https://hardcover.app","cache_age":86400,"title":"Illywhacker","url":"https://hardcover.app/books/illywhacker","description":"In Australian slang, an illywhacker is a country fair con man, an unprincipled seller of fake diamonds and dubious tonics. And Herbert Badgery, the 139-year-old narrator of Peter Carey\u0026#39;s uproarious novel, may be the king of them all. Vagabond and charlatan, aviator and car salesman, seducer and patriarch, Badgery is a walking embodiment of the Australian national character—espcially of its proclivity for tall stories and barefaced lies. As Carey follows this charming scoundrel across a continent and a century, he creates a crazy quilt of outlandish encounters, with characters that include a genteel dowager who fends off madness with an electric belt and a ravishing young girl with a dangerous fondness for rooftop trysts. Boldly inventive, irresistibly odd, Illywhacker is further proof that Peter Carey is one of the most enchanting writers at work in any hemisphere.","author_name":"Peter Carey","author_url":"https://hardcover.app/authors/peter-philip-carey-8f987e27-9cb4-4b7b-a459-73e427e708da","thumbnail_url":"https://assets.hardcover.app/edition/30823604/f4e37ed5d1325f3663d808eb75a85f668b2f410e.jpeg","thumbnail_width":322,"thumbnail_height":500}