Author(s): Shearer, Jane

NZ Fiction

How do you mend the broken, be it toasters, relationships or people? Julia once re-created broken objects to be better than before. However, a series of earthquakes triggered Julia's descent into apathy and now she's lost the will to repair anything, including herself. She's going to a support group for help - Obsessives Associated. Each member has their own obsession to overcome - eating plasterboard, amassing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, brand-name tattoos. Finding a friend in Lynda, a doll-obsessed marathon runner, Julia feels as though she's finally on the mend until a dilemma fragments the group and threatens to break Julia all over again. Which glue repairs fractured humans? Broken is Beautiful is a novel about breaking, mending and how to be friends across ideological divides.