Books by Bruce Grant

He is an Australian businessman with a secret hope that Australia as a nation will count for something important in its region and the world. She is the daughter of an Indonesian mystic whose secret hope is that she will become the country's president. Each year she spends a night with her father in the graves of their ancestors. "Otherwise," she laughs, "I'm just a regular Sydney girl," or, as she sometimes says, "a ratbag feminist". She is against abortion and wants marriage and children. He believes that free love, like free markets, will find its own way. As a compromise, they marry in a secular ceremony in Prague and become crusaders for a liberal, democratic new world order. But Indonesian and Australian politics - and the Goddess of the Arafura Sea - conspire against them. Author Biography: Australian writer-diplomat Bruce Grant has written ten works of non-fiction, three novels, essays and short stories published in The New Yorker, Mademoiselle, Playboy, Cleo, The Bulletin, Quadrant, Overland and Meanjin. His first book, Indonesia, became a classic. Crossing the Arafura Sea is one of three novels on the theme "Love in the Asian Century". He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi, foundation chairman of the Australia-Indonesia Institute, chairman of the Australian Dance Theatre, chairman of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, president of Melbourne's International Film Festival and president of Melbourne's International Arts Festival. His essay "The Great Pretender at the Bar of Justice", written at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, was published in The Best Australian Essays 2002. "Bali: The Spirit of Here and Now", written after the October 2002 bombings, was published in The Best Australian Essays 2004. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by Monash University in December 2003 and distinguished Fellow by the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2010.

A dramatic meeting at night in a garden in New Delhi is the beginning of a tragic affair between a young Australian archaeologist, Annie, and an Indian poet, Gopala. "A meeting like this only happened when the signs were right... It was like Krishna and Radha at the lily pond." The pace of the novel is swift and direct, moving from love scenes that are sometimes sensual, sometimes tender, to diplomatic and political life. It is a study of India as an ancient civilisation adapting to the contemporary world and of Australia, secular and modern, searching for an identity in its region. Love poems of a 14th century Indian poet Vidyapati are used as a leitmotiv. Eventually, Annie says the three words that lovers down the ages have said to each other. It is too late, but Gopala hears the words and acknowledges them. A moment in life becomes eternal; because she said "I love you," death has lost its sting. Annie returns to Australia determined that her experience in India will change her life. Author Biography: Australian writer-diplomat Bruce Grant has written ten works of non-fiction, three novels, essays and short stories published in The New Yorker, Mademoiselle, Playboy, Cleo, The Bulletin, Quadrant, Overland and Meanjin. His first book, Indonesia, became a classic. The Last Kiss is one of three novels on the theme "Love in the Asian Century." He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi, foundation chairman of the Australia-Indonesia Institute, chairman of the Australian Dance Theatre, chairman of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, president of Melbourne's International Film Festival and president of Melbourne's International Arts Festival. His essay "The Great Pretender at the Bar of Justice," written at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, was published in The Best Australian Essays 2002. "Bali: The Spirit of Here and Now," written after the October 2002 bombings, was published in The Best Australian Essays 2004. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by Monash University in December 2003 and distinguished Fellow by the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2010.

An Australian professor, negotiating middle age as a bachelor, and a Chinese girl student, negotiating the hazards of freedom in Australia, are the central characters in this study of the human dimension in the Asian Century. Their tender, thoughtful, unfulfilled relationship is set against a background of China's rising power and Australia's struggle to find a response, while remaining an ally of the United States, all played out in and around a class of international and local students in a Melbourne university. Author Biography: Australian writer-diplomat Bruce Grant has written ten works of non-fiction, three novels, essays and short stories published in The New Yorker, Mademoiselle, Playboy, Cleo, The Bulletin, Quadrant, Overland and Meanjin. His first book, Indonesia, became a classic. A Young Woman From China is one of three novels on the theme "Love in the Asian Century." He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi, foundation chairman of the Australia-Indonesia Institute, chairman of the Australian Dance Theatre, chairman of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, president of Melbourne's International Film Festival and president of Melbourne's International Arts Festival. His essay "The Great Pretender at the Bar of Justice," written at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, was published in The Best Australian Essays 2002. "Bali: The Spirit of Here and Now," written after the October 2002 bombings, was published in The Best Australian Essays 2004. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by Monash University in December 2003 and distinguished Fellow by the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2010.

At the outset of the twentieth century, the Nivkhi of Sakhalin Island were a small population of fishermen under Russian dominion and an Asian cultural sway. This book draws upon Nivkh interviews, archives, and translated Soviet ethnographic texts to examine the effects of this remarkable state venture in the construction of identity.

Bruce Grant explores the long relationship between Russia and the Caucasus and the means by which sovereignty has been exercised in this contested area.