An Australian literary hoax lies at the core of My Life as a Fake, Peter Carey's captivating, 'continuously startling' (John Updike) contemplation of the art world. In steamy, fetid Kuala Lumpur in 1972, Sarah Wode-Douglass, editor of a London poetry journal, meets the mysterious Christopher Chubb. An Australian literary hoaxer, Chubb is carting around a manuscript likely filled with deceit. In this dubious work Sarah recognises a real genius. But whose genius? She is drawn into a fantastic story of imposture, murder, kidnapping, and exile, which couldn't be true unless its teller were mad. Or perhaps haunted. My Life as a Fake is a Frankenstein story in which what is imagined comes to life and exacts its due. 'Reads like the impossible offspring of a fictional ménage-á-trois involving Pale Fire, Lord Jim, and Our Man in Havana.' The Atlantic Monthly 'Dazzles the reader with heady ideas . . . then catapults us into madcap action.' The Village Voice 'A charismatically furious piece of work, brilliantly meshing its ethical and artistic debate with a rich human drama.' The Times 'So confidently brilliant, so economical yet lively in its writing, so tightly fitted and continuously startling.' John Updike, The New Yorker 'Fast, furious and fantastical . . Carey is Australia's finest living novelist.' The Guardian 'A wholly absorbing, bizarrely madcap comedy and a telling commentary on the sometimes baffling sources of art . . . Turth, beauty and comedy wrapped in one sprightly package.' Chicago Tribune 'A magnificent, poetic contemplation of the lying, fakery and insincerity inherent in the act of artistic creation.' The Times