Bruny

Winner of the ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year

Why is a massive bridge being built to connect the sleepy island of Bruny with the mainland of Tasmania? And why have terrorists blown it up?

When the Bruny bridge is bombed, UN troubleshooter 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, her mother is fading, 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 novel about family, love, loyalty, and the new world order. It is a prescient and gripping thriller with a jaw-dropping twist, a love story, and a funny, fiercely entertaining work of imagination that asks the burning question: What would you do to protect the place you love?

Bruny throbs with the clash of rapacious development versus a simpler life ... Crisp and evocative writing makes this a hugely enjoyable page-turner. Marie Claire

Rose has mastered the contemporary realist novel ... no vignette or internal dialogue is here that doesn't enhance the complex tale she is making. Believable, relatable people, families, romance, grief and the terser political narrative all come together with magnificent brio. The Age

Heather Rose takes no prisoners in this hugely entertaining satirical novel. Readings

More like a hand grenade than a book, with its excoriating satire and explosive view on our political and economic trajectory ... audacious writing with something here for everyone ... moments on every page that keep narrative tension bubbling away. The Weekend Australian

An entertaining and thought-provoking romp with authentic dialogue and characters that are all complex and multidimensional ... Rose writes with emotional intuition [and] has that eminently readable interiority that only a novel can bring. The Saturday Paper

Seamless and enormously entertaining storytelling for readers of all stripes ... Packed with swipes that Tasmanians especially will have no trouble recognising. The Illawarra Mercury

A political thriller at its core, Bruny is also a really enjoyable story infused with family drama. Who Magazine

Part political thriller, part family saga, part love letter to Tasmania, this is [Rose's] most ambitious novel to date. Australian Book Review

Among her intense political intrigues and deep concerns about the directions Australian society is taking, Rose inserts moments of deep tranquillity ... often passionately didactic and cautionarily disquieting, Bruny is thoroughly entertaining and endearingly Tasmanian. The Advertiser