Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here (Heather Rose, A&U)

At the age of six, Heather Rose stood under a eucalyptus tree and pledged herself to a higher power: ‘I’m ready. Tell me what to do.’ Throughout her childhood in Hobart, her dad would take her to Sunday school while her mother, an atheist, stayed home. The young Heather wasn’t convinced by God (He didn’t deliver the horse she prayed for for her birthday) but this connection to a higher power and interest in spirituality would come to define her. And when tragedy splintered her family, Rose posed questions of life and death, purpose and meaning, that would guide her through life. Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here is a meditation on belief, identity and grief by the Stella Prize-winning author of The Museum of Modern Love. Rose begins and ends her memoir in Tasmania, but in between she takes her reader around the world in search of meaning. In opium dens in Malaysia and monasteries in Bangkok, a sweat lodge in New Mexico and a hospital in Hong Kong, Rose reflects on her purpose in life, deconstructing her identity as daughter/sister/mother/part-ner/writer again and again. It is always fascinating to dive into the mind of a celebrated author, and this memoir certainly delivers insights and revelations. Meandering and surprising, Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here is similar to Robert Dessaix’s exploration of mortality What Days Are For and will appeal to anyone interested in spirituality.

Coco McGrath is a freelance editor and former bookseller.

Category: Reviews