Illywhacker is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published in 1985 to commercial and critical success, winning a number of awards and being short-listed for the Booker Prize. Considered metafiction or magical realism, the novel is narrated by liar, trickster, and confidence man Herbert Badgery, the "illywhacker" of the title, and tells the story of his picaresque life in Australia between 1919 and the 1980s. Source: Wikipedia (en)