Book description
Michael "Butcher" Boone is an ex-“really famous" painter, now reduced to living in a remote country house and acting as caretaker for his younger brother, Hugh. Alone together they've forged a delicate equilibrium, a balance instantly destroyed when a mysterious young woman named Marlene walks out of a rainstorm and…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Theft as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Every novel Peter Carey writes is a rollicking adventure and this one is no exception. I love his way with words that is always original, and his idiosyncratic characters.
Theft tells the story of Michael "Butcher" Boone, an Australian artist whose career is in the doldrums. The novel alternates between the viewpoint of Butcher and that of his "damaged" brother Hugh. And yes, there is theft in the novel,…and scams and forgeries too. This is my favourite of all Carey’s novels.
From Alison's list on art theft mystery novels that don’t tell the same old story.
Peter Carey’s Theft: A Love Story is a funny, fast-moving, and satirical send-up of the contemporary art world of the 1980s, featuring a swashbuckling, over-the-hill Australian former art star, “Butcher,” just released from prison (jailed for stealing his own work from his former wife), his clearly on-the-spectrum and severely overweight brother, and a mysterious, beautiful femme fatale, who just happens to be the daughter-in-law of a famous dead artist. She arrives on the scene to authenticate a painting by her late father-in-law, which Butcher owns, but is soon stolen. Meanwhile, she becomes interested in rekindling Butcher’s dwindling career and her…
From Phoebe's list on genre-bending artists: inside and out.
If you love Theft...
These Blue Mountains
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
Want books like Theft?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 88 books like Theft.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,340
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Theft, you might also like...
Foxfire in the Snow
It's a time of change, between magic and alchemy.
Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…
The Main Gate
Dr. Elise Marquette has spent years burying the past—until the past refuses to stay buried.
Hired to join Earth’s first interstellar contact team, she hopes the vastness of space will finally offer distance from the ghosts of war and the wounds left by a mother who never let her be…
