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: Liz Morison, Climate Initiatives Lead, Australia Institute Climate & Energy program

Liz Morison is the Climate Initiatives Lead in the Climate and Energy Program. Liz started as an inaugural Anne Kantor Young Women Environmentalists Fellow, before joining the Australia Institute as a researcher. She is now Climate Initiatives Lead for the Climate & Energy Program. Liz’s work in climate and environmental integrity is informed by her multidisciplinary background in research and data analysis, journalism, communications and community organising. She holds an Honours degree in Conservation Biology, with a focus on the impacts of climate extremes on ecosystems.