Peter Carey hilariously conjures up dystopia in his picaresque The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith.

Severely afflicted, doomed never to be taller than three foot six, Tristan Smith faces death and danger from the first moment of his energetic and ambitious life. Here, for the first time, is the truth about him, from his birth in the Republic of Efica in the year 371 to the present day. When he goes on trial for multiple offences in Voorstand, a nation of rampaging global dominance, Tristan must plead his case to the very culture that has done for his own. Peter Carey’s piercing allegory of imperialism is unmatched for originality and inventiveness.