About this item
"Art will wake you up. Art will break your heart. There will be glorious days. If you want eternity you must be fearless." - Heather Rose, The Museum of Modern Love Our hero, Arky Levin, has reached a creative dead end. An unexpected separation from his wife was meant to leave him with the space he needs to work composing film scores, but it has provided none of the peace of mind he needs to create. Guilty and restless, almost by chance he stumbles upon an art exhibit that will change his life. Based on a real piece of performance art that took place in 2010, the installation that the fictional Arky Levin discovers is inexplicably powerful. Visitors to the Museum of Modern Art sit across a table from the performance artist Marina Abramovi, for as short or long a period of time as they choose. Although some go in skeptical, almost all leave moved. And the participants are not the only ones to find themselves changed by this unusual experience: Arky finds himself returning daily to watch others with Abramovi. As the performance unfolds over the course of 75 days, so too does Arky. As he bonds with other people drawn to the exhibit, he slowly starts to understand what might be missing in his life and what he must do. This is a book about art, but it is also about success and failure, illness and happiness. It's about what it means to find connection in a modern world. And most of all, it is about love, with its limitations and its transcendence.
About the Author
Heather Rose is the bestselling Australian author of eight novels. Heather writes for both adults and children. Her adult novels include Bruny, The Museum of Modern Love, The River Wife & The Butterfly Man. The Museum of Modern Love won the 2017 Stella Prize, the Christina Stead Prize and the Margaret Scott Prize. It was shortlisted for the Australian Literary Society Medal and longlisted for the IMPAC Awards. It has been published internationally and translated into numerous languages. Both stage and screen rights have been acquired. Bruny, published 2019, is a political thriller, family saga and a novel about the new world order. described as 'more a hand grenade than a book' What would you do to protect the place you love? And how far will the Australian government go to placate foreign interests?Heather's first novel White Heart was published in 1999. It was followed by The Butterfly Man in 2005 - a story based on the disappearance of British peer Lord Lucan in 1974. The Butterfly Man was longlisted for the IMPAC Awards, shortlisted for the Nita B Kibble Award and won the 2006 Davitt Award for the Crime Fiction Novel of the Year written by an Australian woman. Heather writes the acclaimed Tuesday McGillycuddy series for children under the pen name Angelica Banks with award-winning author Danielle Wood. The series begins with Finding Serendipity with sequels A Week Without Tuesday and Blueberry Pancakes Forever. The novels have been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards for best fantasy children's fiction and are published internationally. Heather lives on the island of Tasmania.
