'How far would your government go?
'A right-wing US president has withdrawn America from the Middle East and the UN. Daesh has a thoroughfare to the sea and China is Australia's newest ally. When a bomb goes off in remote Tasmania, Astrid Coleman agrees to return home to help her brother before an upcoming election. But this is no simple task. Her brother and sister are on either side of politics, the community is full of conspiracy theories, and her father is quoting Shakespeare. Only on Bruny does the world seem sane.
'Until Astrid discovers how far the government is willing to go.
'Bruny is a searing, subversive, brilliant novel about family, love, loyalty and the new world order.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Part way through Bruny, Heather Rose's first foray into the thriller genre, Dr Astrid Coleman (UN fixer and covert CIA agent. 'six feet tall and trained to defend myself', twin sister to the Tasmanian premier, half-sister to the Tasmanian opposition leader, scion of a political dynasty and proud 'sixth-generation Tasmanian) turns to her love interest. Dan Macmillan (retired-paratrooper-turned-tradie-turned-works-manager with a Celtic sleeve tattoo, 'Paul Newman blue' eyes and 'a Chris Pine been-down-Texas-robbing-a-bank look' but 'strong' like Chris Hemsworth) as he skins up a joint to ask 'Why are we letting paradise get invaded?' The two have just conspired with Astrid's brother, Liberal premier John 'JC' Coleman, to conceal the death of a Chinese worker on a vast suspension bridge being built to connect Bruny Island and its mixture of wealthy holiday shack owners, gastronomes, bespoke hoteliers and artisanal farmers to the Tasmanian mainland—a project bankrolled by the Chinese Communist Party's Belt and Road initiative, waved through at the highest levels of state and federal government. The dead worker is one of hundreds flown in from China, their extra labour necessitated by a terrorist attack that takes out half the bridge just before construction is complete —an attack later revealed as a false flag operation carried out by the Australian secret services.' (Introduction)
A Conversation with Heather Rose
Amanda Rayner
(interviewer),
2020
23469941
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'2017 Stella Prize winner Heather Rose chats with Readings bookseller Amanda Rayner about her new novel, Bruny.' (Production summary)
'Bruny Island is the surprising setting for the final battle of the culture wars in Heather Rose’s political satire.'
'Tasmanian writer Heather Rose’s fifth adult novel, Bruny, about a joint venture between the Chinese, Australian, and Tasmanian governments, is well timed, given current concerns about the covert infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party into Australia’s universities and given Federal MP Andrew Hastie’s recent warning that Australia should approach its relations with China with care, lest its sovereignty be diminished. Rose’s last novel, The Museum of Modern Love, which in 2017 won the Stella Prize and the Christina Stead Prize, is set in New York. In Bruny, Rose returns to Tasmania where her earlier novels are set. Part political thriller, part family saga, part love letter to Tasmania, this is her most ambitious novel to date. Bruny covers a multitude of issues, including family loyalty, betrayal, corruption, environmental protection, and the rise of China.'(Introduction)
'When in 2017 Nordstrom began selling US$425 jeans (A$620) covered in fake mud, it seemed the long prophesied “late stage capitalism” had finally arrived. Suddenly the phrase itself was everywhere from Reddit to Twitter and applied to every freakish story about excessive consumption or corporate perfidy.' (Introduction)
A Conversation with Heather Rose
Amanda Rayner
(interviewer),
2020
23469941
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'2017 Stella Prize winner Heather Rose chats with Readings bookseller Amanda Rayner about her new novel, Bruny.' (Production summary)
'Part way through Bruny, Heather Rose's first foray into the thriller genre, Dr Astrid Coleman (UN fixer and covert CIA agent. 'six feet tall and trained to defend myself', twin sister to the Tasmanian premier, half-sister to the Tasmanian opposition leader, scion of a political dynasty and proud 'sixth-generation Tasmanian) turns to her love interest. Dan Macmillan (retired-paratrooper-turned-tradie-turned-works-manager with a Celtic sleeve tattoo, 'Paul Newman blue' eyes and 'a Chris Pine been-down-Texas-robbing-a-bank look' but 'strong' like Chris Hemsworth) as he skins up a joint to ask 'Why are we letting paradise get invaded?' The two have just conspired with Astrid's brother, Liberal premier John 'JC' Coleman, to conceal the death of a Chinese worker on a vast suspension bridge being built to connect Bruny Island and its mixture of wealthy holiday shack owners, gastronomes, bespoke hoteliers and artisanal farmers to the Tasmanian mainland—a project bankrolled by the Chinese Communist Party's Belt and Road initiative, waved through at the highest levels of state and federal government. The dead worker is one of hundreds flown in from China, their extra labour necessitated by a terrorist attack that takes out half the bridge just before construction is complete —an attack later revealed as a false flag operation carried out by the Australian secret services.' (Introduction)
