Considered metafiction[1] or magical realism,[2] the novel is narrated by liar, trickster, and confidence man Herbert Badgery, the "illywhacker" of the title, and tells the story of his picaresque life in Australia between 1919 and the 1980s.

Herbert also becomes the lover of Jack's teenage daughter Phoebe, who had previously been involved in a lesbian relationship with a teacher, Annette Davidson.

Herbert briefly becomes the lover of Jack's widow, Molly, but goes out on the road to scrape a living, often as a confidence trickster, accompanied by his two children.

Sonia dies, and Herbert is subsequently jailed for an assault on a Chinese man who had been his childhood mentor, Goon Tse Ying, whose finger is torn off.

He accidentally kills a rare bird he is smuggling, whereupon he sells much of his share in the business to Japanese investors and commences rebuilding the emporium to his own design, according to which it becomes a bizarre and controversial museum of the Australian nation.

Reviewing the book in The New York Times, Howard Jacobson called it "a big, garrulous, funny novel, touching, farcical and passionately bad-tempered... Not unlike spending a week in the company of the best kind of Australian.