Peter Carey did not mince words in a rather juicy interview to Bookseller today where the two-time Booker-winning novelist discussed his forthcoming novel Amnesia, along with an alliterative list of other topics currently on his mind: Amazon, Assange and Americans up for Bookers.
On Julian Assange, Carey said that he was approached by his American editor Sonny Mehta and asked if he would like to co-write the book. “But I thought, no. Two control freaks? It wouldn’t work.”
Probably a wise move since we all know what happened to the unlucky fellow who did take up the offer, novelist Andrew O’Hagan.
Instead, Carey tapped his fellow Aussie for his own inspiration:
The work of prominent hackers like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden lurks in the background of Amnesia,… [which] begins with hackers releasing a virus targeting US-designed prison security systems, with the prime suspect young Australian Gaby Ballieux, the daughter of film star Celine. Journalist, and Celine’s ex-boyfriend, Felix Moore is called in to write Gaby’s “real story”.
Says Carey:
“When Assange appeared, my first thought was, ‘he’s Australian’. No one really dealt with that. What was going on in my mind was [the US] fucked Australians over, so [Assange] fucked them over.”
By Bookseller’s account, Amnesia is “Booker bait,” with a “decent shot” at being long listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize… but that means little to Carey these days, who says that opening the prize up to American authors “diminishes the prize’s unique character.”
Carey also weighed in on the Amazon versus Hachette battle, saying that publishers historically “have just rolled over for Amazon,” but that “the truth is far more complicated than Amazon are arseholes and publishers are saints.”
“What I primarily think is that someone ought to start caring about the producers of the content. Publishers are making a shitload of money because of the [reduced] costs on ebooks, writers less and less. Publishers better start changing their P&Ls [profits and losses], and giving a better royalty rate than the pitiful one that they are offering on ebooks. Publishers have let this happen as historically they have just rolled over for Amazon.”