A wild romp through Australian celebrity culture that's as bold and scathing as it is hilarious.
Everything in this world has a price. A great work of art is no exception. And what fortune was ever built without a little subterfuge?
Oli Darling is a queer artist from the country - it says so right at the top of every press release. His art has brought him fame, money, fashionable substance abuse issues and only a little imposter syndrome. But then he goes on live TV and says the one thing that can get a rich white guy cancelled.
With his reputation in tatters, nobody is buying Oli's schtick or his art. That's a problem for all the people who've invested millions in him. Powerful, dangerous people. To save his own skin, Oli will need to restore his public image. Together with a ghostwriter, he must do the most undignified thing imaginable- he will have to write a memoir.
So begins a journey through the underbelly of modern celebrity that sees Oli confront the consequences of his own ruthless mythmaking - lies he's told others, lies he's told himself. Perhaps he was right to feel like an imposter. And maybe the only way out is to take a good hard look at himself.
Outrageous satire of the highest order, Appreciation sets its sights on the question of authenticity in a time where image trumps talent, narcissism rules, and no canvas is so tarnished it can't be painted over.
Praise for Appreciation
'Made me laugh gleefully, and also made me squirm. Pieper's pen is a sharply honed blade - there's a hell of a lot of truth in this deceptively jaunty satire. I gulped it down.' Christos Tsiolkas
'A clever, wry and utterly hilarious impaling of Australian culture. A worthy successor to Oscar Wilde.' Kris Kneen
'Smart and daring, witty and incisive. A work of genius.' Jessie Stephens
'A deft skewering of contemporary values - as hugely entertaining as it is piercingly relevant.' Nick Earls
Praise for The Toymaker
'Hugely memorable.' Hannah Kent
'Bold and compelling.' Peter Pierce, Weekend Australian
Praise for Sweetness and Light
'Crackling with a tension that doesn't let up.' Jay Daniel Thompson, Australian Book Review
'A high-stakes, self-aware literary thriller.' Elke Power, Readings
About the Author
Liam Pieper is an author and ABIA-winning ghostwriter of global bestsellers as well as more modest successes with his name on the cover. The first was a memoir, The Feel-Good Hit of the Year, shortlisted for the National Biography Award and the Ned Kelly Best True Crime award. His second was the Penguin Special Mistakes Were Made, a collection of funny true stories. He was co-recipient of the 2014 M Literary Award, winner of the 2015 Geoff Dean Short Story Prize, the inaugural creative resident of the UNESCO City of Literature of Prague, and the 2018 National Library of Australia Creative Arts Fellow for Australian Writing. His novels are The Toymaker, Sweetness and Light and Appreciation, which is objectively the most fun of the three.
