Q

Peter Carey on his new novel and how he's confronting Australia's colonial legacy as a white author

The two-time Booker Prize-winner examines the legacy of colonialism in Australia through a 1950's cross-country car race in his new novel A Long Way From Home.
Peter Carey is a two-time Booker Prize-winning author. (Random House Canada)

Two-time Man Booker Prize-winner Peter Carey is one of the giants of contemporary literature. From legendary 19th century outback outlaws to the ousting of a prime minister in the 1970s, Carey has told uniquely Australian stories for decades.

In his latest novel, A Long Way From Home, Carey writes for the first time about Australia's legacy of colonialism and what it's meant to his homeland's Aboriginal people. He calls it "the novel [he] spent [his] whole life not knowing how to write."

Carey talks to Tom Power about this dark history and shares his thoughts on how a non-Indigenous writer can address the wrongs of the past. 

Produced by Chris Trowbridge