New Kiwi Novel Explores Finding Community Despite COVID Isolation

Jane Shearer’s novel Broken is Beautiful tackles the thorny issue of how to find community in COVID times.

Broken is Beautiful is set in Ōtautahi Christchurch from 2020 to 2022. Julia needs to reimagine the story of her life, which has spiralled into disarray since the Canterbury earthquakes. She is attending an Obsessives Associated support group to overcome her obsession with the broken objects filling her house.

The group makes progress, despite COVID lockdowns, until the need for vaccination results in polarised views. Julia and her new friend Lynda – a doll-obsessed marathon runner – are in opposing camps. How are such divides to be bridged?

The novel is grounded in Shearer’s lived experience of the earthquakes in Ōtautahi Christchurch, while investigating the universal experience of lockdowns.

Shearer says: “Whereas the quakes brought us together on many levels, the isolation of COVID lockdowns had the opposite effect. After each major earthquake people used to invite one another into their homes to share food that would otherwise go to waste, and collectively carry out repairs. During the pandemic we retreated to small groups, connected only electronically. How does this affect our society?”

“Broken is Beautiful shines a light into the workings of minds I have struggled to understand since moving to New Zealand from India,” says author June Baptista.

Sue Harcombe, teacher and avid reader, says “I wanted to sit down and give Julia a good talking-to a few times. I was so incredibly satisfied when she finally saw sense.”

Shearer is a scientist and experienced writer of non-fiction. She has contributed towards over $800 million of successful funding proposals in her twenty years of consulting to the science sector in Aotearoa New Zealand.

This is her first novel, exploring the elusive nature of certainty and knowledge. It draws on her training as a scientist together with her fascination with human stories. Read more at janeshearer.com/blog.

Broken is Beautiful is available in print, as an e-book and as an audiobook. It is in selected bookshops now.

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