'Lally has invested everything into her gallery in Manhattan and the sacrifices are finally paying off. Pat is a scholarship boy desperate to establish himself in Sydney's antiquities scene. When they meet at New York's Armory Show their chemistry is instant - fighting about art and politics is just foreplay.
'With an ocean between them they try to get back to work, but they're each struggling to balance money and ambition with the love of art that first drew them to their strange industry. Lally is a kingmaker, bringing exciting new talent to the world, so what's the problem if it's also making her rich? Pat can barely pay his rent and he isn't sure if he's taking advantage of his clients or if they are taking advantage of him, and which would be worse? Their international affair ebbs and flows like the market, while their aspirations and insecurities are driving them both towards career-ending mistakes.
'If love costs and art takes, what price do we pay for wanting it all? The Work is about the biggest intersections of life: of art and commerce, of intimacy and distance, of talent and entitlement, and of labour and privilege. Dazzling, funny and unforgettable, it is an epic and forensic exploration of modern love and passion, politics and power. The Work announces a brilliant new voice in Australian fiction.' (Publication summary)
'One of the compelling things about reading horror is the simultaneous push-pull sensation; to be drawn in and repulsed at the same time. This is what it feels like to read Bri Lee’s debut novel, The Work. Here, the horrors on display are the hideousness of capitalism’s corrupting effect on art and the moral compromises made in the name of ambition.'
'Old and new art mix with old and new values in this debut novel from Bri Lee.'
'New books from Bri Lee and Liam Pieper reach into the frictions and follies of the art industry. But are they fact or fantasy?'
'The Work is the debut novel of Bri Lee, an accomplished nonfiction writer and public intellectual. It’s set between Sydney and Manhattan, in a milieu where art matters but money rules. It offers up steamy sex and cold characters along with some great lines (“Life had clearly been generous to Sophie, but not kind”) and some absolute clunkers (“When some cunt’s passing offered to fast-track you a few rungs up the ladder of life, you didn’t look a dead gift horse in the mouth”). Relationships in The Work are highly transactional across a range of currencies – sex, prestige, actual money – and yet true love conquers all.' (Introduction)
'A novel that’s torn between two books – one is a half-hearted skewering of money and power, the other a modern romance'
'The Work is the debut novel of Bri Lee, an accomplished nonfiction writer and public intellectual. It’s set between Sydney and Manhattan, in a milieu where art matters but money rules. It offers up steamy sex and cold characters along with some great lines (“Life had clearly been generous to Sophie, but not kind”) and some absolute clunkers (“When some cunt’s passing offered to fast-track you a few rungs up the ladder of life, you didn’t look a dead gift horse in the mouth”). Relationships in The Work are highly transactional across a range of currencies – sex, prestige, actual money – and yet true love conquers all.' (Introduction)
'New books from Bri Lee and Liam Pieper reach into the frictions and follies of the art industry. But are they fact or fantasy?'
'In the lead-up to the release of her first novel, the author talks about art, cynicism and the human fascination with pain'
