Bri Lee is our guest author for the May episode of Australia’s Biggest Book Club.

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.

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.

‘This novel isn’t just good; it’s superb. Assured, and powerful, and intelligent, and very, VERY hard to put down. I consumed it in a passion.’ – Annabel Crabb

Australia’s Biggest Book Club is brought to you by the Australia Institute.

Speakers

Guest Author: Bri Lee, Author of The Work

Bri Lee is the multi-award-winning author of Eggshell Skull, Beauty and Who Gets to Be Smart. Her journalism, essays, and short stories have been published widely, and she is the creator and editor of News & Reviews. The Work is Bri’s debut novel.

Host: Ebony Bennett

Ebony Bennett is deputy director of the Australia Institute and host of its popular webinar series and Follow the Money podcast. Beginning her career as a journalist in the Canberra press gallery for the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review, Ebony has worked in federal politics in a variety of roles for almost 20 years and has published research on climate change and energy, gender and street harassment and contributed a chapter to Morrison’s Miracle: The 2019 Australian Federal Election (ANU Press 2020) and The Nordic Edge: Policy Possibilities for Australia (MUP 2021). Ebony is a regular commentator and contributor across broadcast and print media, she appears regularly as a commentator on ABC and Sky News and has a fortnightly column in The Canberra Times.