Winner, Ned Kelly Awards, Best True Crime, 2015
A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, 2014
On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father's Day, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother, Cindy, when his car left the road and plunged into a dam. The boys, aged ten, seven and two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident? The court case became Helen Garner's obsession. She followed it on its protracted course until the final verdict.
In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom with its actors and audience, all gathered for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth, players in the extraordinary and unpredictable drama of the quest for justice.
This House of Grief is a heartbreaking and unputdownable book by one of Australia's most admired writers.
Helen Garner's first novel, Monkey Grip won the 1978 National Book Council Award, and was adapted for film in 1981. Since then she has published novels, short stories, essays, and feature journalism. In 1995 she published The First Stone, a controversial account of a Melbourne University sexual harassment case. Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004) was a non-fiction study of two murder trials in Canberra. In 2006 Helen Garner received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature. Her most recent novel, The Spare Room (2008), won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier's Award for Fiction and the Barbara Jefferis Award, and has been translated into many languages. Helen Garner lives in Melbourne.
'Helen Garner's This House of Grief (Text) is a gripping account of a murder trial in which few of the participants act and react in ways we might predict. It's an examination not just of what happened, but also of what we prefer to believe and what we cannot face believing.' Julian Barnes, Books of the Year, TLS
'Helen Garner's account of the trial is a non-literary variation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1966). It is all the more shocking for her direct, no-nonsense, often horrified, approach.' Eileen Battersby, Books of the Year, Irish Times
'Helen Garner is an invaluable guide into harrowing territory and offers powerful and unforgettable insights. This House of Grief, in its restraint and control, bears comparison with In Cold Blood.' Kate Atkinson
'As involving, heart-rending and unsettling a read as you could possibly find, a true-life account of three deaths and a trial that leaves you with a profound sense of unease as its drama unfolds, and disturbing questions about how we judge guilt and innocence...Tailor-made for those who have gorged recently on the popular true-crime podcast Serial.' The Times
'Fascinating and heart-breaking...a thought-proving book, an examination of what darkness might lurk behind any ''ordinary'' exterior, given extraordinary circumstances.' Otago Daily Times
'This House of Grief is a magnificent book about the majesty of the law and the terrible matter of the human heart. It has its centre a feeling of the engulfing powers of love and hate and the way any heart unlucky enough may kill the thing it loves and drown in an eternity of grief. If you read nothing else this year, read this story of the sorrow and pity of
innocents drowned and the spectres and enigmas of guilt.' Peter Craven, Weekend Australian
'[Garner] has turned a courtroom drama into something deeply human.' Jennifer Byrne, Australian Women's Weekly
'[Garner's] portraits of the various actors in the courtroom are lyrically woven with vignettes of the world beyond...An important contribution to an ongoing dialogue.' Law Institute Journal
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