Marie Claire Australia — December 2017

marieclaire.com.au 85

There’s a lot more than simply “boy meets

girl” in these off-kilter romances

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OUR SOULS AT NIGHT

This love story about the twilight

years is soon to be a film starring

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. Our

Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (Pan

Macmillan, $19.99) is out now.

WE ARE LIGHTNING!

Creative (not romantic) partners Sam

Halmarack and Joseph O’Farrell bring

their bromance to the stage in

We Are Lightning!, running from

December 6 at Arts House.

MODERN LOVE

A collection of essays about love, loss

and redemption read by celebrities

including Dakota Fanning and Colin

Farrell. Our pick? Take Me As I Am,

Whoever I Am, a woman’s story of

dating with bipolar. The Modern Love

podcast can be downloaded from iTunes.

In this Aussie drama series, Sergeant James Hayes is reunited with his wife Kate.

The catch? His wife died of breast cancer two years ago and has returned from the dead.

Oh, and he remarried – to her best friend. Glitch season two airs on ABC.

BAND AID
Married couple Anna and Ben fight
constantly. When therapy doesn’t work,
they decide to start a band and turn their
arguments into songs: “You get so hangry
and so rude. You’ve got to change your
attitude”. So relatable. Band Aid screens
at the Jewish International Film Festival.

READ ALL

ABOUT IT

Australian author Jane Harper

reveals how she coped with second

novel syndrome when she sat

down to write Force of Nature,

a mystery about a team-bonding

hike that goes terribly wrong

The Dr y, your debut novel, won

(basically) every single literary

award last year. Were you

surprised by its success?

Absolutely. It completely exceeded

all my expectations. When I started it,

my goal was to see if I could finish

writing a manuscript.

Little did you know, Reese Witherspoon

would go on to buy the film rights to it.

How did that make you feel?

Surprised! I didn’t even know that

she had seen it until I got a phone

call out of the blue. I would love to

see my story on the screen.

Your follow-up, Force of Nature, is

out now. How did you cope with the

pressure of “second novel syndrome”?

I did question whether I could even

write another book. I didn’t want

to disappoint people. It can be daunting

to write 90,000 words, so I had to

take it chapter by chapter.

You’ve been called Australia’s answer

to acclaimed Swedish journalist and

writer Stieg Larsson, who wrote The

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. What do

you make of the comparison?

That’s incredibly flattering. But, really, all I

wanted was to write the kind of book that

I would enjoy reading. I’m so happy that

other people have embraced it, too.

You wrote The Dry after doing a

12-week online writing course. Can

anyone learn how to write?

I do think writing is a skill that can be taught

and learnt. A lot of it is about practice and

repetition. Some people are more naturally

drawn to it, but anyone can tell a story.

When can we expect book number

three from you?

I’ll be starting on

the next book

almost straight

away. *Insert

applause

emojis here.*

Force of Nature

(Pan Macmillan,

$3 2 .99) is

out now.

Patrick Brammall

and Emma Booth

in Glitch.

GLITCH

@PLAY