SOURCE: Carey, Peter, and John F. Baker. “PW Interviews: Peter Carey.” Publishers Weekly 238, no. 54 (13 December 1991): 37-8.

In the following interview, Carey discusses the difficulties he encountered in writing The Tax Inspector, the influences that shape the subject matter of the novel, and the different critical receptions of the novel in Australia and the United States.

Most writers seem to have had a harder time than Peter Carey getting to the top. Perhaps it's partly due to the hunger in his native Australia for new literary voices, but from the time he began to publish in 1974 critical recognition was swift, and was soon followed by prestigious awards. War Crimes, his second book of short stories (the first was The Fat Man in History), won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award in 1980; his first novel Bliss the following year won three, including the National Book Council Award; Illywhacker in...