The first Penguin edition of Peter Carey's His Illegal Self, with a cover by Michael Leunig Che is the precocious son of radical student activists at Harvard in the late sixties. Raised in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother, he yearns for his famous outlaw parents. Soon Che too is an outlaw: fleeing down subways, abandoning seedy motels at night, he is pitched into a journey that leads him to a hippie commune in the rainforests of Queensland. Here he slowly, bravely confronts his life, learning that nothing is what it seems. Who is his real mother? Was that his real father? If all he suspects is true, what should he do? 'Reading this novel is like peering at the human heart . . . an adventure story for the modern, tormented soul.' Cathleen Schine, New York Review of Books 'There are times when his ability to empathise with a small child recalls, and comes close to matching, David Copperfield.' John Preston, Sunday Telegraph 'Psychologically astute and diabolically suspenseful . . . Carey's unique take on the conflict between the need to belong and the dream of freedom . . . is at once terrifying and mythic.' Donna Seaman, Booklist