A clever political thriller with a powerful message on a large scale. Computer hacking genius Gaby, involved with an extreme anarchist gang, is the daughter of a high ranking Australian politician. She manages to get prison doors to unlock and somehow her programming unlocks doors in America too, so a link between the countries is verified. Felix is a drink sodden, left-wing journalist bent on writing Gaby’s biography. How the two cross paths, separate and cause havoc is quite a tale. It’s written in journalistic style, tense, taut with black humour and surprisingly likeable characters. From a twice winner of the Man Booker Prize, it is obviously extremely well written, a book of great merit. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
When Gaby Bailleux released the Angel Worm into Australia's prison system, allowing hundreds of asylum seekers to walk free, she also let the cat out of the bag. The Americans ran the prisons, like so many parts of her country, and so the doors of some 5000 American places of incarceration also opened. Both countries' secrets threatened to pour out. Was this a mistake, or had Gaby declared cyberwar on the US? Felix Moore - known to himself as 'Australia's last serving left wing journalist' - has no doubt. Her act was part of the covert conflict between Australia and America. That conflict dates back to the largely forgotten Battle of Brisbane in 1943, stretches forward to America's security interests in Pine Gap and commercial interests everywhere, and has as its most outrageous act the coup of 1975. Funded by his property-developer mate Woody Townes, Felix is going to write Gaby's biography, to save her, and himself, and maybe his country. But how to get Gaby to co-operate? What role does her film-star mother have to play? And what, after all, does Woody really want?
Peter Carey was born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria in 1943. He has published 18 books and been translated into 24 languages. His numerous prize wins include the Man Booker Prize twice, the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize twice and the Miles Franklin Literary Award three times. His novels have sold in excess of one million copies in the UK alone. He has lived in New York for over twenty years.
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