Peter Carey is an acclaimed Australian novelist and short story writer born on May 7, 1943 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. He is one of the few writers to have won the Booker Prize twice, with his novels Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang.

Carey was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven, after which he became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School from 1954 to 1960. In 1961, he briefly studied science at Monash University. His literary journey began during his employment at an advertising agency, where he was introduced to the works of Faulkner, Joyce, and Kerouac, among others. Over the next thirteen years, Carey dedicated his nights and weekends to writing fiction.