Which Peter Carey novel won the 2001 Booker Prize?

Which Peter Carey novel won the 2001 Booker Prize? The answer is True History of the Kelly Gang.

Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang won the 2001 Booker Prize. The novel is a fictionalised autobiography of Ned Kelly, the nineteenth-century Australian bushranger, and presents his life through invented documents and a distinctive voice modeled on historical accounts and Kelly’s surviving writings.

Carey follows Kelly from his childhood and family hardships through horse theft, outlawry, bank robbery and his violent confrontations with police. The novel explores how a criminal can become a folk hero, while also showing the brutality and instability behind that legend. Its title can mislead readers: it is not a literal historical record, but a work of historical fiction built around real people and events.

This was Carey’s second Booker win. He had previously won in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda, so he became one of the relatively small group of authors to win the prize twice. Jack Maggs, Illywhacker and Oscar and Lucinda are Carey novels, but none won in 2001.