War Crimes (1979) is a collection of short stories by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published by University of Queensland Press in 1979.[1]
The collection includes 13 original stories by the author.[1]
Writing in The Canberra Times Marion Halligan noted: "This imagination of Carey's is a source of amazement throughout the collection of stories. One is conscious of the elaborate construction of other worlds, as close to ours as the reflection in a faintly distorting mirror. The discrepancies tantalise. Carey mostly writes in a grave formal prose the more surrealistic the stories...Myths, fables for our time, worlds of the imagination that illuminate as they cast doubt on the real world: Carey's stories are a stimulating excursion into the relevance of the mysterious. He charms, he amazes, he appals, he amuses; our emotions are not often run through so full a gamut."[2]
After its original publication in 1979[3] the collection was reprinted by the University of Queensland Press in 1981[1] and 1984.[4]
The collection won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in 1980.[5]