Set in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance, "Carpentaria" is the unforgettable portrait of the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight's renegade Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other. By turns operatic and surreal, Wright's stunning and richly imagined storytelling is a blend of myth and scripture, farce and politics. Her extraordinary characters - Elias Smith the outcast saviour, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, the murderous mayor Stan Bruiser, the moth-ridden Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist and prodigal son Will Phantom, and above all, the rulers of the family, the queen of the rubbish-dump and the fish-embalming king of time, Angel Day and Normal Phantom - stride like giants in this storm-swept world.
- ISBN10 1845297210
- ISBN13 9781845297213
- Publish Date 27 March 2008
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 6 October 2011
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Imprint Constable
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 520
- Language English