Briefly, Very Beautiful, Roz Dineen
Briefly, Very Beautiful, Roz Dineen
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Briefly, Very Beautiful
A Novel

Author: Roz Dineen

Narrator: Henrietta Meire

Unabridged: 12 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/02/2024


Synopsis

In a land destabilized by unsafe air, wildfires, floods, viruses, supply shortages, and homegrown terror, Cass is raising three small children by herself in the city. Her husband, Nathaniel, has gone all too willingly to serve as a medic in an overseas war. His absence, and Cass's isolation, has brought her into an exhausted but harmonious rhythm with the children; while it's a frightening time, there is also a surprising, quiet tenderness in living on the edge of societal collapse.

When things start to feel more dangerous in the city, Cass evacuates with the children to her mother-in-law's house deep in the countryside. Initially, it's a place of safety, but her mother-in-law's erratic behavior and increasing grip over the children worries Cass, and so they flee again to a commune on the coast. It's an idyllic place, but Cass comes to suspect this seemingly harmonious community has a dark underbelly.

Briefly Very Beautiful is a magnetic novel about love and resilience. Against a wider backdrop of a world imploding, it is an exploration of hope and fear, beauty and joy, as well as seismic betrayal. Roz Dineen's lush prose combines with epic and precise world-building to create a society that feels at once unrecognizable but deeply, chillingly familiar. The result is a compelling portrait of what it is to parent through apocalypse.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Justine on August 08, 2024

Beautifully written, but stressful to read, story about parenting and marriage during the slow apocalypse as it picks up speed. Alternate title: The Mother’s Guide to Surviving Climate Collapse When Your Husband is a Giant Man-Baby 😂......more

Goodreads review by Anna on November 08, 2024

3.5 The collapse of society just seems to creep up on Cassie and her 3 children....she adjusts...copes as best she can to climate extremes..constant fires and eco-terrorism. This while her husband is away being a Doctor in a war zone and being vague and dubious. So Cassie picks up the children and esse......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on July 05, 2024

"Before everything became impossible, it was briefly, unspeakably beautiful." Briefly Very Beautiful tells a story about the apocalypse, sure. And a believable one, at that. But more than a story about the end times, it's the story about finding your strength and doing what you mu......more

Goodreads review by M. Rought-Brooks on June 24, 2024

Like all the books about climate change including 'The Ministry of the Future' and 'Uninhabitable Earth' this falls at the last fence by ending on a note of optimism. There is no future in optimism now. You only have to look at the manifestos of the main parties in this election and consider how peo......more

Goodreads review by Jackie on March 23, 2024

Dineen’s writing is gorgeous and I loved Cass’s development throughout the book. Overall a climate-caused apocalypse novel that hits too close to home in certain parts with the increase of global wildfires in recent years. The ending is wrapped up but allows for a sequel should the author want to pu......more