The Fine Color of Rust
A Novel
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Set in the Australian bush, a wryly funny, beautifully observed novel about friendship, motherhood, love, and the importance of fighting for things that matter.
Loretta Boskovic never dreamed she would end up a single mother with two kids in a dusty Australian country town. She never imagined she’d have to campaign to save the local primary school. She certainly had no idea her best friend would turn out to be the crusty old junk man. All in all, she’s starting to wonder if she took a wrong turn somewhere. If only she could drop the kids at the orphanage and start over . . . But now, thanks to her protest letters, the education minister is coming to Gunapan, and she has to convince him to change his mind about the school closure. And as if facing down the government isn’t enough, it soon becomes clear that the school isn’t the only local spot in trouble. In the drought-stricken bushland on the outskirts of town, a luxury resort development is about to siphon off a newly discovered springwater supply. No one seems to know anything, no one seems to care.
With a dream lover on a Harley unlikely to appear to save the day, Loretta needs to stir the citizens of Gunapan to action. She may be short of money, influence, and a fully functioning car, but she has good friends. Together they can organize chocolate drives, supermarket sausage sizzles, a tour of the local slaughterhouse—whatever it takes to hold on to the scrap of world that is home. Warm, moving, and funny, The Fine Color of Rust is “a story about love: where we look for it, what we do with it, and how it shows up in the most unexpected packages” (Big Issue, Australia).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
O'Reilly's tale of a backwater Australian town seen through the eyes of Loretta Boskovic, who struggles to make ends meet and do good for her community, is hilarious and tenderly moving. The crusading and self-deprecating Loretta lives in the middle of nowhere and fantasizes about dropping her two recalcitrant children off at an orphanage, just in time for her studly savior to appear on his Harley and whisk her away into the sunset. We meet Loretta's quirky friends such as her neighbor Norm, whose junkyard lawn is not the haphazard eyesore everyone thinks it is; and her best friend, Helen, who's got her sights set on the third grade teacher. When the government threatens to close the local school, Loretta cobbles together a resistance movement, and the resulting visit by the "Minister for Education, Elderly Care and Gaming" is as comic as it is affecting. Watching Loretta's children, 11-year-old Melissa and six-year old Jake, react to the unexpected appearance of their father and Loretta's ex, Tony, with his much younger girlfriend in tow, underscores O'Reilly's insight into fragile family dynamics. In the end, when a corrupt land-development plot is revealed and the disparate community pulls together to honor one of their newly deceased members, readers will see clearly why in this little corner of the world, even a little rust and dust is worth fighting for.