{"title":"Books by Helen Garner","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781399606820","title":"The Children's Bach","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A jewel of a novel about a perfect family falling apart' DAVID NICHOLLS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A slim, deeply humane work that tingles with life' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMERVE EMRE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAthena and Dexter Fox are content. They love each other. They are friends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey live with their two young sons in a sparsely furnished house near the Merri Creek: its walls cracking, its floors sloping and its doors hanging loosely in their frames. There is a piano in their kitchen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut then, Dexter runs into Elizabeth, an old friend from his university days. She brings into his world her loose-living musician boyfriend, Philip, and her seventeen-year-old sister, Vicki.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd all at once, the bonds that hold the Fox family together begin to fray. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince its first publication in 1984, The Children's Bach has been hailed as one of only four perfect short novels in the English language, one of the greatest family novels ever written and Garner's masterpiece.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA W\u0026amp;N Essential with an introduction by David Nicholls\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298348904821,"sku":"9781399606820","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399606820_05aba6b7-a833-4545-80ae-d54c60587dd3.jpg?v=1786019417"},{"product_id":"9781399606745","title":"How to End a Story","description":"\u003cp\u003e'There are very few writers that I admire more than Helen Garner'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDAVID NICHOLLS\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The greatest, richest journals by a writer since Virginia Woolf's'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRACHEL COOKE, \u003ci\u003eOBSERVER\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Marvellous, all eight hundred pages of it'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOLM TÓIBÍN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The great Australian writer's masterpiece'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHelen Garner has kept a diary for most of her adult life. Now she is widely recognised as one of the greatest writers of our age. But, of all her books, it is her diaries that she likes best.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCollected for the first time into one volume, these inimitable diaries show Garner like never before: as a fledging author in bohemian Melbourne, publishing her lightning-rod debut novel while raising a young daughter in the 1970s; in the throes of an all-consuming love affair in the 1980s; and clinging to a disintegrating marriage in the 1990s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow to End a Story\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the inner life of a woman in love, a mother, a friend and a formidable writer at work. Told with devastating honesty, steel-sharp wit and an ecstatic attention to the details of everyday life, it offers all the satisfactions of a novel alongside the enthralling intimacy of something written in private and just for pleasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LESLIE JAMISON\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Acute, rigorous, pitch-perfect'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNIGELLA LAWSON\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'With sharp eyes and ears, Garner is a recording angel at life's secular apocalypses' \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJAMES WOOD, \u003ci\u003eNEW YORKER\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Dazzling, fearless greatness. I could not recommend this book more'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eINDIA KNIGHT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An acclaimed celebrator of the poetic quotidian'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eANNE ENRIGHT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298640245109,"sku":"9781399606745","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399606745_cd0c8ad8-f6a0-416b-8e57-ba50917b9f77.jpg?v=1786019413"},{"product_id":"9781399606783","title":"Monkey Grip","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Seductive as hell. Brilliant, unusual, breathtaking' LAUREN GROFF\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Languid, beautiful' \u003ci\u003eANOTHER MAGAZINE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Its pages radiate sex and heat, chlorine and rock'n'roll' MADELAINE LUCAS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1970s Melbourne, Nora is a happy woman. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe is happy moving between the city's communal households, with her little daughter. Happy with days spent at the public pool, and nights spent dancing and drinking and talking and smoking and loving freely. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut then Nora meets Javo. Javo, with his crooked, wrecked, wild face and his violently blue eyes. And soon she is trapped in the monkey grip of his drug addiction and her own obsessive love for him. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn its first publication in 1977, \u003ci\u003eMonkey Grip\u003c\/i\u003e was both a sensation and a lightning rod due to its frank portrayal of the lives of Garner's generation. Now a modern classic, it introduces us to Helen Garner's dazzling and radical literary voice.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA W\u0026amp;N Essential with an introduction by Lauren Groff\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298723508597,"sku":"9781399606783","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399606783_1f9a18d8-5237-40e2-9ac1-07fce5771f0d.jpg?v=1786019414"},{"product_id":"9781399606806","title":"This House of Grief","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDua Lipa's Book Club Pick for August 2025\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A true-crime classic and literary masterpiece' ANNE ENRIGHT\u003cbr\u003e 'Bears comparison with \u003ci\u003eIn Cold Blood\u003c\/i\u003e' KATE ATKINSON\u003cbr\u003e'It grabbed me by the throat' GILLIAN ANDERSON\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Sharp and forensic' DUA LIPA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFather's Day, 2005. 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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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305841930613,"sku":"9781786896087","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786896087_e85c5ef5-6e9c-4390-b16c-6956d2626244.jpg?v=1786025537"},{"product_id":"9781399639576","title":"The Mushroom Tapes","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn July 2023, in a quiet Australian country town, Erin Patterson - stay-at-home mother and true crime devotee - invited her husband's devoutly Christian family to lunch. Within days, three of her guests were dead and the fourth was in a coma. They had all been poisoned by death cap mushrooms. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo years later, Patterson stood trial, accused of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. The court case gripped the nation and fascinated people all over the world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong those drawn into the drama were three renowned Australian writers: Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. 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She sees women giving birth, and gets the sack for teaching her students about sex. She attends a school dance and a gun show. She writes about dreaming, about turning fifty, and the storm caused by her book \u003ci\u003eThe First Stone\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrue Stories\u003c\/i\u003e collects Helen Garner's short non-fiction written over a period of almost fifty years. In this marvellous book are her most famous essays about family, about love and death and  sex, about growing up and growing old, about birth and marriage and separation, about travel and staying home. Garner's command of the form, her honesty, humility and humour, her instinct for the right word and the shape of a sentence reveal themselves in essay after essay.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368803414389,"sku":"9781399606769","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399606769_c0e80448-228b-4890-82e0-653800fb1d3d.jpg?v=1786034518"},{"product_id":"9781399606844","title":"Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis volume of collected short fiction gathers and celebrates the work of one of Australia's most loved authors.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese 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. 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She not only goes to every game (give or take), but to every training session too, shivering on the sidelines at dusk, fascinated by the spectacle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe's a passionate Western Bulldogs fan with an imperfect grasp of the rules, who loves the epic theatre of AFL football. But her devotion to the under-16s offers her something else. This is her chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him before he rushes headlong into manhood. 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