The Chemistry of Tears was published by Penguin Books Australia in 2012. Catherine Gehrig, a conservator at a London museum, is secretly grieving the death of her married lover when she is assigned to restore a nineteenth-century mechanical swan — an automaton of extraordinary complexity. As she works on the swan, she reads the journals of Henry Brandling, the Victorian collector who commissioned it from a German clockmaker in the 1850s, ostensibly as a toy to amuse his dying son.
The novel braided two timelines of grief: Catherine mourning a lover she cannot publicly acknowledge, and Brandling mourning a son he cannot save. The automaton — a machine designed to simulate life — became a metaphor for the human need to create substitutes for what death takes away.
Collecting The Chemistry of Tears
First edition (Penguin Books Australia, Melbourne, 2012): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Australian first edition, fine in jacket: $20–$50
- UK first edition (Faber): $10–$25
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
The Mechanical Duck
A grieving museum conservator in modern London is assigned to restore a nineteenth-century mechanical automaton — a clockwork duck — and discovers, through the journals of the man who commissioned it, a story of obsession, loss, and the desire to create artificial life. The novel weaves two timelines (Victorian and contemporary) around the themes of grief, mechanism, and the human need to animate the inanimate. It is one of Carey’s most intimate novels.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Carey teach? Carey has taught creative writing at Hunter College in New York City, where he directed the MFA programme for many years. He is a significant figure in the New York literary scene and has mentored several generations of younger writers, both Australian and American.