Jessie Tu - A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing

Jessie Tu is a fierce, intelligent, and fearless new voice in Australian literature. In her debut novel, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, Jena Lin plays the violin. Once a child prodigy, Jena now uses sex to fill the void left by fame. 

Exploring female desire, ambition and race, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing scrutinizes the consequences of using sex as a pathway to power.

“I absolutely inhaled this book. Gutsy, bold and surprising, with a darkness that draws you in and keeps you hanging onto every word.” - Bri Lee, author of Eggshell Skull.

Jessie will appear in-conversation with Emily Maguire. 

Event tickets are $5. Or you can select an Event+Book combo ticket for $29.99 - a saving of $5. This event will take place on Zoom. The Zoom meeting details form part of your ticket, emailed to you after registration. 

About the Book

Jena’s professional life comprises rehearsals, concerts, auditions, and relentless practice; her personal life is spent managing the demands of her strict family and creative friends and hooking up. And then she meets Mark—much older and worldly-wise—who consumes her. But at what cost to her dreams? 

When Jena is awarded an internship with the New York Philharmonic, she thinks the life she has dreamed of is about to begin. But when Trump is elected, New York changes irrevocably and Jena along with it. Is the dream over?

A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing is about the awkwardness and pain of being human in an increasingly dislocated world—and how, in spite of all this, we still try to become the person we want to be.

Praise

“I absolutely inhaled this book. Gutsy, bold and surprising, with a darkness that draws you in and keeps you hanging onto every word.” - Bri Lee, author of Eggshell Skull.

"Jessie Tu's writing is fierce and bold; I read this novel with escalating excitement, galvanised by the emergence of a powerful new voice."  - Christos Tsiolkas, author of Damascus.

About the Author

Jessie Tu trained as a classical violinist for more than 15 years. Failing to succeed as a professional musician, she has taught music at many prestigious Australian schools, at refugee camps in the Middle East, volunteered with AUSAID in The Solomon Islands, travelled to complete residencies in the U.S, and now works as a journalist at Women's Agenda.

Jessie has won several poetry and writing awards, and her first book of poetry was released in 2018. A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing is her first novel.

About the Moderator

Emily Maguire is the author of five novels and three non-fiction books. Her latest novel, An Isolated Incident was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Emily’s articles and essays on sex, feminism, culture and literature have been published widely including in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Observer and The Age. Emily works as a teacher and as a mentor to young and emerging writers and was the 2018/2019 Writer-inResidence at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.