One of the most stunning acts of literary criticism in modern times was perpetrated in an Australian magazine called Angry Penguins during World War II. It consisted of a small body of faux experimental poetry, purporting to be the work of an obscure garage mechanic who had recently died, and to have been discovered by his sister. The editor was completely taken in.
The real story of this elaborate hoax was fully told by Michael Heyward in "The Ern Malley Affair," published by Faber in 1993.
The Australian writer Peter Carey's new novel, "My Life as a Fake," turns the real events into a wonderful picaresque confection. Carey's fictional tale does not take place exclusively in Australia, but also in England and in parts of Asia. Indeed it begins in England at a Faber literary party.