In Peter Carey's latest novel, His Illegal Self, a young boy comes of age during the militant radical underground of the early 1970s. Starting in Manhattan's Upper East Side, his journey ends in a hippie commune in Queensland with a woman who "had no idea of what Australia even was"--a fitting passage for the celebrated Australian author, who lives in New York and explores Australian identity, history, and culture. "We are still inventing our country," says Carey about his native ...