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Shop nowHis Illegal Self
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Learn moreChe is a precocious young boy raised in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother. Yearning for his famous outlaw parents—radical 1960s activists who are now among the FBI’s most wanted—he’s denied all access to television and the news. But he takes hope from his long-haired teenage neighbor, who predicts: “They will come for you, man. They’ll break you out of here.”
And one afternoon, the prediction appears to come true. Soon Che, too, is an outlaw, fleeing with the woman into the subway and pitched into a journey that leads them to a hippie commune in the jungles of tropical Australia. Here, Che slowly, bravely confronts his life, learning that nothing is what it seems.
Peter Carey is the author of ten previous novels and has twice received the Booker Prize. His other honors include the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Born in Australia, he has lived in New York City for twenty years.
Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and an award-winning narrator who has won several Audie Awards, as well as more than twenty-five Earphones Awards, and been named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices.
Reviews
“Carey, who has made a career out of boring into the psyches of scoundrels, delivers a cunning fugitive adventure [that]...barrels toward a bang-up conclusion.”
“An utterly arousing performance by narrator Stefan Rudnicki…Rudnicki’s straightforward reading of a far from ordinary novel is picture-perfect from start to finish. He dives headfirst into the story and relates it earnestly to his captivated audience.”
“A beautiful and emotionally compelling novel...There is in this book a fascinating and deeply intelligent evocation of late ‘60s, early ‘70s period detail, but at its core His Illegal Self is an ancient and magnificently eerie fairy tale, about a child wise beyond his years, stolen away to the forest, undergoing every kind of mortal trial, and surviving, in a surprising state of luminous grace.”
“Che is as convincing a child as any I have found in the pages of a book: beady as a boy scout; innocent and yet so knowing; brimming with watery nostalgia for states he has never even known.”
“His Illegal Self is a wonderful novel, full of hard-won truths, which nevertheless leaves you with a warm and fuzzy feeling of immense satisfaction .”
“Rudnicki’s baritone voice animates painful emotional truths in his depiction of eight-year-old precocious Che…Che’s feelings of fear, betrayal, and rage and his growing bond with Dial are heartbreakingly real as expressed through Rudnicki’s quietly intense reading.”
“The latest novel from the Booker Prize–winning author is another rousing tale of discovery that takes the rough landscape of Australia as its primary backdrop…Carey writes with amazing authenticity from the perspective of Che, and the conclusion he has cooked up for this beautifully rendered adventure story is sure to knock readers for a loop.”
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