Heather Rose was the author of three adult novels before she won the 2017 Stella Prize for The Museum of Modern Love, and I meant to chase up these earlier novels — but so many other books were clamouring for my attention…
So I came to Bruny knowing Rose only as a literary author of a meditation on art and love, and it was a surprise to discover that this gripping new novel is a powerful and intensely political satire.
And why not? If you are the author of a prize-winning novel, and you know that everyone is going to read whatever you write next — why not take the opportunity to issue a wake-up call?
This literary thriller/love story has plenty of surprises in its cleverly constructed plot. This is the blurb:
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A right-wing US president has withdrawn America from the Middle East and the UN.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.
Set some time in the very near future, Bruny features a Tasmania that is the focus for startling levels of Chinese investment and a world where the US gets that president, and we see the values we relied on America to uphold trickle away like sand.
Although aspects of the scenario seem far-fetched, it allows the author to explore issues about Australian identity, values, and political apathy. When Astrid (a.k.a. Ace) discovers what is going on under the radar and its assault on Australian identity and values, she is convinced that Australians won’t stand for it. But Ace has been out of the country for a very long time. She receives a harsh rejoinder:
‘Ace, your altruism if showing. Why do we do nothing substantial about climate change? Why do we do virtually nothing to improve the lives of the poor? Or bother about those refugees on Nauru and Manus? We like our comfortable lives. We don’t want to give anything up. We fear the loss of comfort.’ (p.318)
She also gets a reminder that there are very harsh penalties for protesting in the Australia she has come back to, and the media has had a role in the nation’s complacency. Discussing the confirmation of Xi Jinping as Chinese President for Life and the implications for Australia, they say:
…’It’s a concern for China. Strongman leadership is never a good idea. Most of them aren’t benevolent.’
‘And for Australians?’
‘You and I might be discussing this, but out in the suburbs Australians aren’t discussing the Chinese. Maybe not even here in Tasmania.’
“What do you think they are discussing?’
‘Married at First sight.’
I nodded.
‘I remember intelligent TV,’ he said. ‘I’m sure you do too. BBC. Civilisation. Brideshead Revisited. What people watch now, it’s the last days of the Roman Empire. It’s the lead in the water.’ (p.298)
[I’m guessing that if you’re reading this blog, you probably don’t watch Married at First Sight.]
This allusion to a 1981 TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel and Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series about the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy points to an aspect of the characterisation that I really liked. Bruny’s central character is a great representation of an older woman who is comfortable in her own skin. She has an international career as a conflict resolution negotiator. She has a couple of adult children, an ex-husband and no regrets. Like the characters in Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection (1999) she and the potential love interest are on opposite sides of a value-laden issue which matters more to both of them than the prospect of a relationship. As in The Museum of Modern Love, love is contingent on more than the stars aligning.
Readers of The Museum of Modern Love will also find the same preoccupations in Bruny: how much does culture matter? What is art for? Ace and Edward discuss how the neglect of the arts has made the State vulnerable. ‘Nobody with a strong culture can be bought,’ says Edward.
‘There’s no price high enough for people who have land and community in their blood. Haven’t we learned that from every indigenous culture that has clung to their ways and their land to the death? This government, at a state and a federal level, they’ve hammered the arts of years. They’ve eviscerated it. How the ABC has hung on is a miracle, and now, with all these hyenas circling, they’ll almost certainly be forced to privatise. And then it’s over. No national public broadcaster. The right-wing press will win. Every theatre company or film production company in this country—unless it’s making a Marvel movie—has been defunded. That our cultural expression, and if we don’t have that, it weakens everything. (p.332)
[It’s just an accident of timing, but the publication of Bruny coincides with the news that Island Magazine has been defunded by the Tasmanian government.]
When all is said and done, it’s the arts that define who we are as Australians. Our values and our identity are expressed through the arts in all sorts of ways.
This is a highly entertaining novel, with strong characterisation and a tight compelling plot that invites lively discussion. However, I did find myself wondering how Chinese Australians might view this critique of Chinese investment in our country. I feel some ambivalence about Chinese investment in Australia, just as I feel ambivalent about any powerful country having the potential to influence our economy and politics in adverse ways. But I’m also aware that Australia is a small, middle-ranking country that depends on foreign investment to maintain its standard of living, and also that Australia has its own foreign investments, through our superannuation savings and investment portfolios, as well through corporate activity. It’s how the global economy works, and while we might have doubts about the level of investments flowing in and out of the country, that’s a separate issue to objecting to investments from a particular source.
There can be no doubt that this is a topical issue. The anxiety about Chinese investment doesn’t seem to be just because we don’t share the same values as China and we worry about their human rights record. (You could say exactly the same about trading with Iran, or Saudi Arabia). It also seems to be about more than just money: after all, until recently, Belgium had more investments in Australia than China. (This report is from 2016 but this point about Belgium is also mentioned in passing on the Radio National program Big Ideas, Australian and the European Union, at 22.40 in the recording). If you are keen you can read the opinions of Clive Hamilton in his 2018 book Silent Invasion (on my TBR), about what he sees as the alarming level of Chinese political and economic influence in Australia; see also the review at The Conversation which rebuts some of his concerns. For an article about Australia’s economic dependence on China, see here.
There are all kinds of Chinese Australians in Australia. There are some whose families have been here since the Gold Rush, and some who were grateful to be allowed to stay after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. There are others who’ve come escaping persecution in Indonesia and Malaysia, while others from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have come because they were attracted by the lifestyle and business opportunities that are here. My dentist is Chinese-Australian, and so is my pharmacist. We have friends and neighbours who are Chinese-Australian, and I have taught hundreds of kids of Chinese origin as well. Heather Rose doesn’t feature any local Chinese as major characters, and the book might have been more nuanced if she had.
I wouldn’t like it if any Chinese Australians were made to feel uncomfortable because of this book’s preoccupations…
Author: Heather Rose
Title: Bruny
Publisher: Allen and Unwin, 2019, 406 pages
ISBN: 9781760875169
Review copy courtesy of Allen and Unwin
Available from Fishpond: Bruny
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
I agree with your thought on Chinese investments and this book keeps hitting me in the face here in Tassie. Another ‘Need to read’. Aghhh! And No, I hate the idea of a tv show called Married at First Sight. Idiocy.
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By: TravellinPenguin on September 26, 2019
at 11:04 am
*chuckle*
Are you in Russia yet?
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By: Lisa Hill on September 26, 2019
at 11:15 am
No, on way to airport in 15 minutes!!🤠🐧
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By: TravellinPenguin on September 26, 2019
at 2:16 pm
Safe travels! Have a great time:)
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By: Lisa Hill on September 26, 2019
at 4:29 pm
Thank you Lisa🤠🐧
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By: TravellinPenguin on September 26, 2019
at 7:10 pm
Chinese investment is a particularly hot button issue for some of my Tasmanian family and friends. I agree with you, Lisa, and would hate to see Chinese Australians made uncomfortable by our current (somewhat xenophobic) preoccupations. And I need to read this book :-)
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By: Jennifer on September 26, 2019
at 1:00 pm
Would I be right in saying that Tassie generally is not as multicultural as the rest of Australia?
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By: Lisa Hill on September 26, 2019
at 4:31 pm
I see Jennifer hasn’t answered this, but it’s an interesting question Lisa. If I based my answer on my brother’s life I would say it is definitely as multicultural – he has many friends from the refugee community there – but statistically I don’t know the answer. My suspicion is that it may not be.
I enjoyed reading your review, and like that you had mixed feelings about the Chinese reference too because of the potential for people to generalise. How I wish people wouldn’t generalise!
I also like your point about the characterisation of an older woman here.
Oh, and your quote re Ace’s altruism is a good one. There are so many quotable comments in this novel!
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By: whisperinggums on April 25, 2020
at 6:59 am
The Museum of Modern Love is one of the great recent novels. I’ll chase this one up. My dentist is decidedly ocker, and my doctor is Indian via Malaysia, but I know/have met Chinese from still coming in the door to fifth gen Oz. – and x Mrs Legend’s great great grandfather was a Chinese on the Ballarat gold fields, so my children are, amongst other things, Chinese.
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By: wadholloway on October 7, 2019
at 8:02 pm
I’ve just had a look at some of the reviews at Goodreads: most have rated this 5-stars, but a couple are dubious about it being ‘too political’.
So that’s interesting in itself…
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By: Lisa Hill on October 7, 2019
at 8:59 pm
I’ve just finished this book… I had a major problem with it: I just did not believe the premise and so I couldn’t shake the feeling the entire novel was preposterous. I appreciated the political satire but I’m not sure that could save it for me… will review on my blog soon once I’ve let my thoughts settle a bit more…
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By: kimbofo on October 21, 2019
at 4:24 pm
I hear you, I thought so too at first: it is a daft premise. But Indigenous people have had land sold out from under them for 200+ years, and we’re never going to get sovereignty back at Pine Gap.
I’ll be interested to see how you review it without giving the game away!
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By: Lisa Hill on October 21, 2019
at 4:39 pm
Good point! I went to the Perth launch a few weeks ago (it was held in a Freo pub 10 minutes walk from me) and they managed to talk about the book for 45 minutes + without giving away any plot spoilers so it shouldn’t be too hard …
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By: kimbofo on October 21, 2019
at 5:27 pm
Lucky you!
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By: Lisa Hill on October 21, 2019
at 6:08 pm
I dragged my poor parents along for a bit of bookish culture… not sure what they made of it 🤪
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By: kimbofo on October 21, 2019
at 7:00 pm
I’m sure you made up for it with some warm WA sunshine:)
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By: Lisa Hill on October 21, 2019
at 9:15 pm
[…] Bruny by Heather Rose (Allen and Unwin), see my review […]
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By: 2020 Indie Book Awards Longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 5, 2019
at 5:02 pm
I’m currently reading Bruny, and while I’m enjoying the story, I have the same concerns which you’ve raised, Lisa. I’m not sure what the big deal is with Chinese investment in Australia, after all, a number of countries have investments here in Oz. Is it so bad that the Chinese now have a degree of influence? I mean, genocide was perpetrated on aboriginal people when the British began to colonise Australia. It’s a horrendous history. So this fear of the Chinese smacks of hypocrisy, esp. in Tasmania where the aboriginal people were virtually wiped out.
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By: marlish glorie on December 11, 2019
at 6:25 pm
Yes, you’re right, I’d hadn’t looked at it from that PoV… looking at it that way makes me feel even more uneasy…
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By: Lisa Hill on December 11, 2019
at 7:23 pm
I’m not sure that two wrongs make a right Marlish. Just because colonialism occurred in the past doesn’t mean it’s right to happen in the future. That would, surely, prove that history repeats itself and that we never learn from it (which indeed I fear we don’t?)
I think any excessive one-sided investment in Australia – whether it’s Chinese, American or European – is a concern because of the risk of losing our independence and self-sufficiency. I think there’s a lot of good in globalisation if it means cooperation and mutual support, but not if it means transfer of power from one’s own nation to an external nation?
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By: whisperinggums on April 25, 2020
at 7:05 am
But is Chinese investment in Australia actually excessive? From what I know its about 10%. Also, Australia is horribly dependent on China and also not forgetting the important contribution Chinese migrants have made to our country. Australia was once very dependent on England for all sorts of reasons. Tasmania use export large amounts of apples to England, but then England joined the EU and Tassie was left high and dry and tore out all of its apple trees. I think what I hate to see this demonising of China when it might not be warranted. When the facts are unknown. Look what happened to the Chinese in this country when the White Australia Policy was introduced . Horrid.
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By: Marlish Glorie on April 25, 2020
at 7:49 am
Thanks for responding, Marlish. When I said “excessive”, I was talking theoretically in response to the suggestion that our fear is hypocritical because we did it to others. I don’t know whether it is excessive or not. I would say that the issue is probably not so much percentage of investment overall, but where that investment is and what comes with it? Is it in areas that are productive for/that benefits Australia? Does it result in undue political influence? I’m not saying it does, just saying that these are the questions that Bruny explores I think. That said, apparently Chinese investment fell around 2018-2019. Maybe we’ll be crying about that soon!!
The good thing about politically-charged books like this is that they get people talking and thinking?
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By: whisperinggums on April 25, 2020
at 8:26 am
Hello Marlish and Sue: the report that I refer to in the 2nd last paragraph was about foreign investment, and in the radio interview they said that Belgium (!) had more investments in Australia than China did (at that time, which was not long ago.) And I know (though I now know not where from) that every time we’ve privatised something, European countries like France have come with their bulging pockets and bought it up.
The demonization of the Chinese feels uncomfortably like the demonization of the Jews, with one caveat. We are right, IMO, to be wary of dealings with countries that don’t share our values. Nothing will ever convince me that we should have a live-animal export trade, or that we should deal with countries with a poor human rights record if that means that businessmen get locked up indefinitely in those countries for spurious reasons.
Maybe COVID_19 will change how the global economy works…
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By: Lisa Hill on April 25, 2020
at 10:16 am
Yes, you’ve hit it on the head Lisa re human rights record. Mr Gums and I feel that way too – though I am always uncomfortable saying it because we Australians are far from squeaky clean ourselves. However, philosophically I think our values are more humanity-based even if practically we fall short too often?
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By: whisperinggums on April 25, 2020
at 10:45 am
True, Australia’s record is a long way from perfect, and we don’t need to list examples. You could say the same thing about America and the way it is the only western democracy that has capital punishment.
But there are two fundamental differences: the first is, that in a democracy, there can be protects and a government can be voted out. (And we will certainly make our judgements about the American people if That Man is voted in for a second time!)
And the second is that there is a legal framework that for all its flaws enforces certain standards.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 25, 2020
at 11:52 am
Yes, absolutely Lisa, all of that makes me glad I live in a liberal democracy. I think the right to protest, to criticise, to satirise. to dissent is a huge difference. It doesn’t stop me not being able to feel completely “holier than thou” though!
As for the American people, I will never judge them because I know many who don’t vote for or approve of that man, many who are distressed, embarrassed and/or ashamed of him. (I feel so sad for them because right now their lives are being risked in ways they just should not be.) I’m not one to generalise about people on the basis of their leaders. After all we have voted in some doozies, notwithstanding that man outshines most of the world’s doozies!!
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By: whisperinggums on April 25, 2020
at 1:02 pm
I think that non-compulsory voting makes a difference here. When we get a result we don’t like, we can console ourselves FWIW with the belief that it’s what the majority wanted and in a democracy we accept that (even if we think the majority is deluded).
But in places with non-compulsory voting there is the fact that many people could not be bothered voting. And, disapprove if you will, if Americans don’t turn out in droves to get rid of That Man, or even worse, if they turn out and vote him back in again, then they do, IMO, deserve our censure.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 25, 2020
at 7:06 pm
I understand what you are saying Lisa – and I know you are not the only one. I don’t disapprove. But I just prefer not to judge others if I can possibly help it. I’m not sure it achieves anything and, in fact, I think it can be detrimental. I will be horrified though, if they do vote him in!!
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By: whisperinggums on April 25, 2020
at 7:18 pm
LOL I don’t think it will matter to anyone much what I think about it…
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By: Lisa Hill on April 25, 2020
at 10:07 pm
Haha Lisa, it probably won’t change what happens over there!
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By: whisperinggums on April 26, 2020
at 8:46 am
[…] Rose, Bruny: novel, on my TBR, Lisa’s and Bill’s […]
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By: Monday musings on Australian literature: ABC Bookshelf’s top Aussie reads 2019 | Whispering Gums on December 16, 2019
at 11:00 pm
[…] Bruny by Heather Rose (Allen and Unwin), see my review […]
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By: 2020 Indie Book Awards shortlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on January 15, 2020
at 10:13 am
[…] Bruny, Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin), see my review […]
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By: 2020 ABIA Longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 2, 2020
at 8:58 pm
[…] Bruny by Heather Rose (Allen and Unwin), see my review […]
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By: 2020 Indie Book Awards winners | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 23, 2020
at 6:50 pm
[…] (ANZLitLovers) enjoyed the novel; Bill (The Australian Legend) also enjoyed it, with some […]
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By: Heather Rose, Bruny (#BookReview) | Whispering Gums on April 24, 2020
at 4:46 pm
BTW Lisa. You are right, I am certainly one of your readers who doesn’t watch Married at First Sight. The closest I’ve come is seeing multiple trailers for it during, I think, the Australian Open (Tennis) which is about the only time we venture to commercial TV. The show looked horrendous. I was nearly tempted to watch an episode to see if it was really as bad as it sounded but decided that was a step too far. The whole premise seems so morally, ethically and psychologically bankrupt.
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By: whisperinggums on April 25, 2020
at 8:34 am
You do wonder about the psychological effect on the contestants. Not to mention the moral integrity of the psychologists who provide ‘guidance’.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 25, 2020
at 10:17 am
[…] Year – proudly sponsored by Booktopia Bruny, Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin), see my review Cilka’s Journey, Heather Morris (Echo Publishing, Echo Publishing) Good Girl, Bad Girl, Michael […]
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By: 2020 ABIA Book of the Year shortlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on April 29, 2020
at 11:47 am
[…] Year – proudly sponsored by Booktopia Bruny, Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin), see my review Cilka’s Journey, Heather Morris (Echo Publishing, Echo Publishing) Good Girl, Bad Girl, Michael […]
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By: 2020 ABIA Book of the Year winners | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on May 13, 2020
at 9:17 pm
[…] Bruny, by Heather Rose […]
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By: 2020: ANZ LitLovers stats | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on January 4, 2021
at 9:51 pm
I really enjoyed this book! Recently I’ve been trying to remember the poem referenced in this book… anyone know the one??
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By: Anna on February 16, 2021
at 3:04 pm
You’ll have to give us some hints about the poem, Anne… It’s a while since I read the book and I didn’t keep it because I didn’t think I’d be reading it again.
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By: Lisa Hill on February 16, 2021
at 7:42 pm