Introducing Rose
Dear Reader of 'All the Words We Know'
Welcome to the world of whatsitsname. A place of forgetting and remembering, of language deficit and the love of words, of powerlessness and indomitability, of fear and laughter and heartbreak and joy.
Welcome to Rose.
Rose is a woman in her eighties, resident of an aged care facility where her friend has died in mysterious circumstances. Rose’s life may have been reduced to the confines of her bed, her wheelchair and her walker, but she is infinitely larger than her limitations. Hellbent on understanding the sinister goings-on around her and overcoming the dangers that threaten her, she first must find a way to access her memories, at the lost centre of which is the truth about the great love of her life.
All the Words We Know is, at its heart, a story about how we make sense of the world.
Some years ago when my own mother went into care, I can say with reasonable certainty that I wasn’t thinking about getting a novel out of it.
Nevertheless. The setting proved irresistible. When I asked another resident how they liked living there, I was answered with some outrage:
‘Oh no, I don’t live here! No, no, no, I’m only visiting!’
That, I suspect, was the spark for this book. Then when I sat down to write, Rose began to speak. Not my mother, not anyone I knew, but a force of nature with whom I could only do my best to keep up. It’s no great exaggeration to say that the business of writing this book was a matter of turning up every day to find out what amazing thing Rose would say or do next.
In the end, this novel will live or die on the strength of Rose’s voice. I hope you enjoy her, as well as the Fellow Who Doesn’t Live Here, the Nice Boy Who Mops the Floors, the Angry Nurse, the Scare Manager, Rose’s long suffering son and daughter, and all the rest.
All I know about writing is to try to follow what’s alive, and lose the rest. As far as I am concerned, Rose is very much alive. Anything else, as Rose would say, is whatsitsname.
Bruce Nash
All the Words We Know is published by Allen & Unwin.
Welcome to the world of whatsitsname. A place of forgetting and remembering, of language deficit and the love of words, of powerlessness and indomitability, of fear and laughter and heartbreak and joy.
Welcome to Rose.
Rose is a woman in her eighties, resident of an aged care facility where her friend has died in mysterious circumstances. Rose’s life may have been reduced to the confines of her bed, her wheelchair and her walker, but she is infinitely larger than her limitations. Hellbent on understanding the sinister goings-on around her and overcoming the dangers that threaten her, she first must find a way to access her memories, at the lost centre of which is the truth about the great love of her life.
All the Words We Know is, at its heart, a story about how we make sense of the world.
Some years ago when my own mother went into care, I can say with reasonable certainty that I wasn’t thinking about getting a novel out of it.
Nevertheless. The setting proved irresistible. When I asked another resident how they liked living there, I was answered with some outrage:
‘Oh no, I don’t live here! No, no, no, I’m only visiting!’
That, I suspect, was the spark for this book. Then when I sat down to write, Rose began to speak. Not my mother, not anyone I knew, but a force of nature with whom I could only do my best to keep up. It’s no great exaggeration to say that the business of writing this book was a matter of turning up every day to find out what amazing thing Rose would say or do next.
In the end, this novel will live or die on the strength of Rose’s voice. I hope you enjoy her, as well as the Fellow Who Doesn’t Live Here, the Nice Boy Who Mops the Floors, the Angry Nurse, the Scare Manager, Rose’s long suffering son and daughter, and all the rest.
All I know about writing is to try to follow what’s alive, and lose the rest. As far as I am concerned, Rose is very much alive. Anything else, as Rose would say, is whatsitsname.
Bruce Nash
All the Words We Know is published by Allen & Unwin.
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