Helen Garner

Two classic Helen Garner novellas introduced by Michael Sala, award-winning author of The Last Thread and The Restorer

Helen Garner's last work of fiction before she turned her hand to narrative non-fiction, Cosmo Cosmolino consists of three artfully assembled linked works: two short stories and a novella

A sparkling family novel from one of Australia's greatest writers, with an introduction from David Nicholls

The novel that launched the career of one of Australia's greatest writers, following the doomed infatuations of a young, single mother, enthralled by the excesses of Melbourne's late-70s counterculture

The engrossing true-crime classic that follows a man and his broken life, a community wracked by tragedy, and the long and torturous road to closure

The novel that launched the career of one of Australia's greatest writers, following the doomed infatuations of a young, single mother, enthralled by the excesses of Melbourne's late-70s counterculture The name Helen Garner commands near-universal acclaim. A master novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, Garner is best known for her frank, unsparing, and intricate portraits of Australian life, often drawn from the pages of her own journals and diaries. Now, in a newly available US edition, comes the disruptive debut that established Garner's masterful and quietly radical literary voice. Set in Australia in the late 1970s, Monkey Grip follows single mother and writer Nora as she navigates the tumultuous cityscape of Melbourne's bohemian underground, often with her young daughter Gracie in tow. When Nora falls in love with the flighty Javo, she becomes snared in the web of his addiction. And as their tenuous relationship disintegrates, Nora struggles to wean herself off a love that feels impossible to live without. When it first published in 1977, Monkey Grip was both a sensation and a lightning rod. While some critics praised the upstart Garner for her craft, many scorned her gritty depictions of the human body and all its muck, her frankness about sex and drugs and the mess of motherhood, and her unabashed use of her own life as inspiration. Today, such criticism feels old-fashioned and glaringly gendered, and Monkey Grip is considered a modern masterpiece. A seminal novel of Australia's turbulent 1970s and all it entailed--communal households, music, friendships, children, love, drugs, and sex--Monkey Grip now makes its long-overdue American debut.

The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - Now in a new edition with a foreword by Rumaan Alam, a modern classic from one of Australia's greatest writers - "It's high time American readers knew her generous, category-defying imagination."--New York Times "The Children's Bach is Garner's] masterpiece."--Public Books Set in suburban Melbourne in the early 1980s, The Children's Bach centers on Dexter and Athena Fox, their two sons, and the insulated world they've built together. Despite the routine challenges of domestic life, they are largely happy. But when a friend from Dexter's past resurfaces and introduces the couple to the city's bohemian underground--unbound by routine and driven by desire--Athena begins to wonder if life might hold more for her, and the tenuous bonds that tie the Foxes together start to fray. A literary institution in Australia, Helen Garner's perfectly formed novels embody the tumultuous 1970s and 1980s. Drawn on a small canvas and with a subtle musical backdrop, The Children's Bach is "a jewel" (Ben Lerner) within Garner's revered catalogue, a beloved work that solidified her place among the masters of modern letters, a finely etched masterpiece that weighs the burdens of commitment against the costs of liberation.

The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - The engrossing true-crime classic from one of Australia's most acclaimed writers, that follows a man and his broken life, a community wracked by tragedy, and the long and torturous road to closure -"This House of Grief, in its restraint and control, bears comparison with In Cold Blood."--Kate Atkinson, author of Big Sky and Shrines of Gaiety On the evening of Father's Day, 2005, separated husband Robert Farquharson was driving his three young sons back to their mom's house when the car veered off the road and plunged into a dam. Farquharson survived the crash, but his boys drowned. Was this a tragic accident, or an act of revenge? The court case that followed became a national obsession--a macabre parade of witnesses, family members, and the defendant himself, each forced to relive the unthinkable for an audience of millions. In This House of Grief, celebrated writer Helen Garner tells the definitive and deeply absorbing story of it all, from crash to final verdict. Through a panoply of perspectives, including her own as a member of the public, Garner captures the exacting procedure and brutal spectacle of Australia's criminal justice system. The result is a richly textured portrait--of a man and his broken life, of a community wracked by tragedy, and of the long and torturous road to closure. Considered a literary institution in Australia, Helen Garner's incisive nonfiction evokes the keen eye of the New Journalists. Brisk, candid, and never dismissive of its flawed subjects, This House of Grief is a masterwork of literary journalism.

When Helen offers her spare room to her old friend Nicola, she has little idea of what lies ahead. Nicola has cancer and, sceptical of the medical establishment, is in the city for a course of alternative treatment. She is determined to deal with her illness in her own way, regardless of the advice that Helen can offer. In the weeks that follow, Nicola's fight against cancer will turn not only her own life upside down but the lives of everyone around her. Told with humour and honesty, this unforgettable novel charts a friendship as it is tested in the face of death.

In her first novel in fifteen years, Helen Garner writes about the joys and limits of female friendship under the transforming pressure of illness. "The clear-eyed grace of her prose" in this darkly funny and unsparing novel has been hailed by Peter Carey as "the work of a great writer." Garlanded with awards, dazzling reviewers around the globe, The Spare Room is destined to be a modern literary classic.

When two young women students claimed they had been indecently assaulted at a party by the Master of Ormond at Melbourne University, the shock not only split the college and university communities but focused sharply the larger social debate about sexuality and power.

Farsdag, 2005. Like etter mørkets frembrudd kjørte en forlatt ektemann sine tre unge sønner tilbake til moren - hans ekskone. På den mørke landeveien, knapt fem minutter fra barnas hjem, svingte den gamle hvite bilen ut av veien og styrtet ned i en demning. Faren klarte å komme seg fri og svømte til bredden, men bilen sank til bunnen, og alle barna druknet. Rettssaken som fulgte, ble Helen Garners besettelse - en sak som skulle ta over livet hennes helt til den endelige dommen falt. Dette sorgens hus er en true crime-klassiker og et litterært mesterverk, som undersøker hva vi mennesker egentlig er i stand til - og hvor sterkt vi kjemper for å skjule det for oss selv.