Peter Carey's His Illegal Self begins with seven-year-old Che Selkirk living with his wealthy grandmother on New York's Upper East Side. Che hasn't seen his parents, hippie radicals who are escaping the law, since he was a toddler.

Che's neighbor and baby-sitter tells Che that one day his mother will come for him, and finally it seems to come true. A woman who calls herself Dial takes Che and heads toward Philly - but then news hits that the child has been kidnapped.

Before you know it, Che and Dial are on the run, winding up in a hippie commune in Australia.

But the situation is actually more complicated. Dial is not really Che's mother; she is a professor who agreed to take Che from his grandmother to meet his mother.

In Australia, the two runaways meet an illiterate hippie who helps them survive and make a home for themselves in the outback. Commune in-fighting and the tension of living on the run in primitive surroundings takes its toll, and eventually Che discovers the truth.

His Illegal Self is really a story about two people and their love for each other. Che and Dial grow attached to each other despite their situation. The two are certainly flawed characters, and their behavior at times can be vexing. Some of the other characters in the book are not particularly well-drawn out, for example Che's grandmother.

Carey gives the hippie lifestyle an in-depth treatment, although it would have been nice if he provided some background on Che's parents and the others in the Australian commune, to better understand what attracted them to the lifestyle.

But the writing style of His Illegal Self is perfect for the subject matter. It is dark, gritty and dynamic, and it includes metaphors and other complexities. Because Carey establishes the story fairly early in the novel, the rest of the book seems to meander along. Readers who enjoy evocative prose and powerful passages, though, may enjoy the story of Che and Dial.

- Ashley