Author Interview: Nadine Browne

Nadine Browne is the author of one of our current book club reads, Gone Guru. In this interview, we got to know her (and the characters) a little better:

What do you know now that you didn’t before you began your book?

That sometimes less is more when it comes to effort. I used to be such a try-hard; I spent four years writing a serious literary novel that was never going to work, and I knew it wasn’t working, but I kept pushing because I believed the big lie that hard work pays off.

It often doesn’t. I think there’s a shift in society around this too, like Capitalism has lied to us! And often authenticity and being kind to yourself and others is more important than any ambitions or accolades.  The courage was actually in admitting it was dead and starting again.

What I know now is that authenticity isn’t a style choice, it’s the only thing that actually works. The moment I stopped trying to write the book I thought I should write and started writing the book that was true, everything changed. Gone Guru exists because I gave up on my literary ambitions and wrote from my actual life instead. The irony of that still makes me laugh.

Your protagonist Noni brings a failing writing project with her to New York. Do her experiences mirror your own?

Hell yeah. The dead baby, as Joyce Carol Oates so aptly called it, the manuscript Noni carries around was mine. Years of work that went nowhere because I was too desperate to prove myself instead of just being myself. Noni is a burnt-out social worker and failed writer, two positions I feel comfortable claiming.

I arrived at NYU surrounded by Ivy League graduates who seemed to have been born knowing how publishing worked—they knew editors, they had connections, famous parents, they spoke a language I was still learning. I was from rural Western Australia, had never done well in academic settings, and in some ways Noni is the fish out of water that I felt I was, with zero adequate preparation for the NY literary world.

That collision between who you were told you could be and what you find when you actually get there is very much my experience, and I tried to enmesh Noni’s character in all that. The imposter syndrome, the loneliness, the suspicion that everyone else knows something you don’t. But also the freedom of letting go of expectation.

The main difference between Noni and me is that Noni gets caught up in solving a missing person case. I was not that interesting, although I did have my fair share of elusive roommates and pedestrian-level intrigue, as well as all the interesting characters.

What was the moment the idea for Gone Guru came alive for you?

It was my first week at NYU. I was sitting in a workshop surrounded by people who seemed impossibly accomplished, and I had this very clear moment of realising: I cannot control whether I become a successful writer. That’s largely luck, timing, and connections I don’t have. But I can control whether I become a more honest and self-aware person.

That shift—from trying to achieve something to trying to understand something—is where Gone Guru began. The missing guru became a way to explore what happens when the thing you’ve been following disappears. Whether that’s a meditation teacher, a belief system, or a version of yourself you’ve outgrown.

I also genuinely became fascinated by the world of wellness culture in New York: this strange intersection of spirituality and commerce, of genuine seeking and spectacular self-delusion, which felt like a perfect mirror for someone who grew up in religious fundamentalism and was trying to figure out if there was any difference.

Which of your characters would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?

Pastor Ricks, without question. The combination of absolute certainty and perennial disappointment with the world feels quite tedious to me. Although he would use the time constructively. By which I mean he would use it to explain exactly where you were spiritually lacking, with accompanying bible verses.

A close second would be a younger version of Noni, that intense mixture of ambition and trying to be someone you’re not —exhausting!

Which of your characters would you invite to a dinner party?

Danny. Without hesitation. He’s 86 years old, has spent his entire life working in New York social services, created the city’s first family homeless shelter, he’s met everyone from Princess Di to Bill Clinton to some of New York’s most infamous gang members, and has approximately zero patience for pretension or self-pity. He’s seen everything, judges almost nothing, and has the kind of practical wisdom that only comes from actually trying to help people rather than talking about it.

He would be the guest who quietly listens to everyone perform their opinions for two hours and then says one thing that reframes the entire conversation. He’d also know the best restaurant to go to/order from, and he’d be in bed by nine, a perfect guest.

Gone Guru by Nadine Browne is published by Fremantle Press and will be available from all good bookstores and online.