Theft: A Love Story

Last updated
Theft: A Love Story
TheftLoveStory.jpg
First edition (Australia)
Author Peter Carey
Cover artistJenny Grigg
Tomek Sikora (photo)
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Knopf (Australia & US)
Faber & Faber (UK)
Publication date
9 May 2006
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages272 pp
ISBN 0-307-26371-1
OCLC 62331104
Preceded by My Life as a Fake  
Followed by His Illegal Self  

Theft: A Love Story is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It won the 2006 Vance Palmer Prize, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award prize for fiction.

Contents

Plot Summary

Theft is the story of Michael "Butcher" Boone, an Australian artist whose career is having an early and comprehensive twilight. The novel alternates between the viewpoint of Butcher himself, and that of his "damaged two hundred and twenty pound brother" Hugh. "There is always Hugh," Butcher says, "and you cannot take a slash or park the truck without considering him." As the novel opens, Butcher is fresh out of jail for robbing his ex-wife of his own paintings, paintings that became hers when the marriage ended. Exiled to a remote house owned by a fussy former patron, Butcher is trying to get his career back on track, avoid his creditors and manage Hugh, when - on a stormy, flooding evening - he receives a visit from the mysterious Marlene, described by Hugh as "a GAMINE with tiny boobies and a silk dress you could have fitted in your pocket with your hanky".

Through marriage to Olivier Leibovitz, Marlene is the holder of the droit moral, the hereditary right to authenticate paintings, in this case those of Olivier's dead father, Jacques Leibovitz. Somehow, Butcher and Hugh's farmer neighbour has recently acquired a Leibovitz of mysterious provenance, and Marlene arrives, a vision in Manolo Blahniks tramping through knee-deep mud, to put a validating stamp on it, immediately sending its worth into the stratosphere. [1]

Awards and nominations

Reviews

Related Research Articles

Brian Albert Castro is an Australian novelist and essayist.

Carrie Tiffany is an English-born Australian novelist and former park ranger.

<i>The Secret River</i> 2005 novel by Kate Grenville

The Secret River is a 2005 historical novel by Kate Grenville about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people. The book has been compared to Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and to Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang for its style and historical theme.

Tom Flood is an Australian novelist, editor, manuscript assessor, songwriter and musician. Tom Flood was born in Sydney in New South Wales, and grew up in Western Australia. He is the brother of Joe Flood, Michael Flood, Kate Lilley and Rozanna Lilley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather O'Neill</span> Canadian writer (b. 1973)

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.

The Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an remuneration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.

Gail Jones is an Australian novelist and academic.

Amanda Frances Lillian Lohrey is an Australian writer and novelist.

<i>Diary of a Bad Year</i>

Diary of a Bad Year is a book by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. It was released by Text Publishing in Australia on 3 September 2007, in the United Kingdom by Harvill Secker on 6 September, and in the United States on 27 December.

<i>My Life as a Fake</i>

My Life as a Fake is a 2003 novel by Australian writer Peter Carey based on the Ern Malley hoax of 1943, in which two poets created a fictitious poet, Ern Malley, and submitted poems in his name to the literary magazine Angry Penguins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chloe Hooper</span> Australian author (born 1973)

Chloe Melisande Hooper is an Australian author.

<i>Sixty Lights</i> 2004 novel by Gail Jones

Sixty Lights is a 2004 novel by Australian author Gail Jones.

<i>The Lost Dog</i> Book by Michelle de Kretser

The Lost Dog is a 2007 novel by Australian writer Michelle de Kretser.

<i>That Deadman Dance</i> 2010 novel by Kim Scott

That Deadman Dance is the third novel by Western Australian author Kim Scott. It was first published in 2010 by Picador (Australia) and by Bloomsbury in the UK, US and Canada in 2012. It won the 2011 Regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the 2011 ALS Gold Medal, the 2011 Kate Challis RAKA Award, the 2011 Victorian Prize for Literature, the 2011 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction and the 2012 NSW Premier's Literary Award Christina Stead Prize and Book of the Year.

<i>Questions of Travel</i> Book by Michelle de Kretser

Questions of Travel is a 2012 novel by Australian author Michelle de Kretser. It won the 2013 Miles Franklin Award and the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction.

<i>Everymans Rules for Scientific Living</i> Book by Carrie Tiffany

Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living is a 2005 novel by Australian author Carrie Tiffany. It won the 2005 Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award and the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction.

<i>Foals Bread</i> Book by Gillian Mears

Foal's Bread is a 2011 novel by Australian author Gillian Mears. It was the winner of the 2012 ALS Gold Medal, the Age Book of the Year for Fiction, the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction, and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Barbara Jefferis Award.

<i>When Colts Ran</i> Book by Roger McDonald

When Colts Ran is a 2010 novel by Australian novelist Roger McDonald.

<i>The Natural Way of Things</i> Novel by Charlotte Wood

The Natural Way of Things (2015) is a novel by Australian writer Charlotte Wood. It won the Stella Prize, for writing by Australian women, in 2016.

Mireille Juchau is an Australian author.

References