Helen Garner Livres

The Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends showcases the range of one of Australia’s greatest writers. These two scripts for films—The Last Days of Chez Nous was directed by Gillian Armstrong in 1991, and Two Friends by Jane Campion in 1986—are funny, sharp observations of relationships and friendships that are as intimate and engrossing as Helen Garner’s acclaimed novels. This edition comes with a new introduction by the internationally renowned screenwriter Laura Jones, winner of the inaugural Australian Writers’ Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

• To celebrate Helen Garner's 75th birthday, we are proud to publish this collection of almost fifty years of her short non-fiction • True Stories is presented in an elegant hardback edition • This edition brings together the essays, stories and diary entries of True Stories, The Feel of Steel and Everywhere I Look as well as later work • This is a must-have for long-time Garner fans and the perfect gift for the many readers who continue to discover her work • With the critical and commercial success of Everywhere I Look, the prestigious US Windham–Campbell Award and her burgeoning international recognition, Helen Garner has consolidated her status as a fundamental part of Australia's literary pantheon • Published earlier this year, Bernadette Brennan's bestselling literary portrait—A Writing Life—has drawn enthusiastic praise and cemented Garner as a writer whose work will be read and studied for decades to come • James Wood wrote in the New Yorker: 'She is everywhere at once, watching and listening, a recording angel at life's secular apocalypses...her unillusioned eye makes her clarity compulsive.' • To be supported by a high-profile marketing and publicity campaign • Helen Garner lives in Melbourne

One Day I'll Remember Diaries 1987–1995 is the second volume of diaries which charts a tumultuous stage in Helen Garner’s life. Beginning in 1987, as she embarks on an affair that she knows will be all-consuming, and ending in 1995 with the publication of The First Stone and the furore that followed it, Garner reveals the inner life of a woman in love and a great writer at work. With devastating honesty and sparkling humour, she grapples with what it means for her sense of self to be so entwined with another – how to survive as an artist in a partnership that is both enthralling and uncompromising. And through it all we see the elevating, and grounding, power of work and the enduring value of friendship. 'Garner is scrupulous, painstaking, and detailed, with sharp eyes and ears. She is everywhere at once, watching and listening, a recording angel at life’s secular apocalypses ... her unillusioned eye makes her clarity compulsive.'The New Yorker 'On the page, Garner is uncommonly fierce, though this usually has the effect on me of making her seem all the more likeable. I relish her fractious, contrarian streak – she wears it as a chef would a bloody apron – even as I worry about what it would be like to have to face it down.'Guardian

The private diaries of one of Australia's greatest living writers, the much loved, fearless and fierce Helen Garner.

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY'This House of Grief, in its restraint and control, bears comparison with In Cold Blood' KATE ATKINSON 'It grabbed me by the throat in the same way that the podcast series Serial did' GILLIAN ANDERSON'Utterly gripping' MARK HADDONFather's Day, 2005. Just after nightfall, a discarded husband drove his three young sons back to their mother, his ex-wife.On that dark country road, barely five minutes from the children's home, the old white car swerved off the highway and plunged into a dam. The father freed himself and swam to the bank, but the car sank to the bottom, and all the children drowned.The court case that followed became Helen Garner's obsession, one that would take over her life until its final verdict. The resulting book is a true-crime classic and literary masterpiece, which examines just what we are capable of and how fiercely we hide it from ourselves.A W&N; Essential with an introduction by Rachel Cooke

In October 1997, a clever young law student at ANU made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their house. Some of the dinner guests - most of them university students - had heard rumours of the plan. Nobody warned Joe Cinque. He died one Sunday, in his own bed, of a massive dose of Rohypnol and heroin. His girlfriend and her best friend were charged with murder. Helen Garner followed the trials in the ACT Supreme Court. Compassionate but unflinching, this is a book about how and why Joe Cinque died. It probes the gap between ethics and the law; examines the helplessness of the courts in the face of what we think of as 'evil'; and explores conscience, culpability, and the battered ideal of duty of care. It is a masterwork from one of Australia's greatest writers.

A powerful, witty, and taut novel about a complex friendship between two women—one dying, the other called to care for her—from an internationally acclaimed and award-winning author How much of ourselves must we give up to help a friend in need? Helen has little idea what lies ahead—and what strength she must muster—when she offers her spare room to an old friend, Nicola, who has arrived in the city for cancer treatment. Skeptical of the medical establishment, and placing all her faith in an alternative health center, Nicola is determined to find her own way to deal with her illness, regardless of the advice Helen offers. In the weeks that follow, Nicola’s battle for survival will turn not only her own life upside down but also those of everyone around her. The Spare Room is a magical gem of a book—gripping, moving, and unexpectedly funny—that packs a huge punch, charting a friendship as it is tested by the threat of death.

Two novellas about the deep connections we forge with the people we love, and the pain of breaking those connections. In Honour, Kathleen and Frank are amicably separated, in contact through shared parenting of their young daughter, Flo. But when Frank finds a new partner and wants a divorce, Kathleen is hurt. And Flo can’t understand why they all can’t live together. In Other People’s Children, Ruth and Scotty live in a big share house that’s breaking up. Scotty is trying to hold on, remembering the early days of telling life stories and laughter and singing—and when the kids were everyone’s kids. But now the bitterness has crept in and their friendship is broken. Ruth is ready to move on—and she’ll take her kids with her.

These stories - that delve into the complexities of love and longing, of the pain, darkness and joy of life - are all told with her characteristic sharpness of observation, honesty and humour. Each one a perfect piece, together they showcase Garner's mastery of the form

In "Monkey Grip", Helen Garner charts the lives of a generation. Her characters are exploring new ways of loving and living - and nothing is harder than learning to love lightly. Nora and Javo are trapped in a desperate relationship. Nora's addiction is romantic love; Javo's is hard drugs. The harder they pull away, the tighter the monkey grip. A lyrical, gritty, rough-edged novel that deserves its place as a classic of Australian fiction.