Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here

A deeply personal collection filled with reflections on love, death, creativity and healing, from the award-winning author of Bruny and The Museum of Modern Love.

'With rare subtlety and humanity, this novel relocates the difficult path to wonder in us all.' The Christina Stead Prize judges on The Museum of Modern Love

And then it occurred to me that nothing bad ever happens here.

Every human life is perfect in its own way. We cannot understand that, because it seems like there is so much suffering. But maybe every life is perfect for we need to know and learn and see and understand. Even when we don't understand, even when the suffering seems unfathomable, does some part of us understand? Could that really be true, I wondered?

Nothing bad ever happens here…

My body was shaking violently now. I held onto the rock beneath me as if I was clinging to life itself. Maybe I was. I clung to this life, my life, with all…