Heather Rose

Can you describe it for us?

So Bruny Island is a long stretch of islands really.

It's two islands that are joined by a very narrow isthmus called the Neck.

And on North Bruny we have a lot of farmlands and forest and rocky beaches and also a beautiful sandy beach right on North Bruny.

But on the South Island, we have Adventure Bay and the Lighthouse and Alanna.

So you're on the west side is the D'Entrecasteux Channel and on the east side is the River Derwent as it opens out into Storm Bay.

And it's a very remote island.

serviced only by two vehicle ferries and has about a population of about 600 permanent residents and a small primary school on it too and you describe it in the book as both a stronghold and a bolt hole mmm I think that's right it's a bolt hole for lots of people and especially all the shack owners there's about 2,000 of those

That's a hard thing to find in the world.

And the more we all travel and see the rest of the world, the rarer Tasmania's silence becomes.

In fact, it was the thing I think that got me home is

Years ago I moved back with my small family and that very first night I can remember the window was open.

I could smell the River Derwent just close by, but more than anything I could hear that silence that is such a rarity.

And as a writer, that silence is really nourishing, too, because it's a busy life having a busy brain full of characters.

So that silence is is nourishing for me.

And I think it is for many, many people.

The idea you can go to bed at night and there is no traffic.

I notice it in Haruki Murakami's work.

I think the isolation of his characters is also coupled with the sort of silence that they seem to have in their apartments.

And of course it's there in some of the older writers.