How to End a Story

Spanning two decades—from the publication of her lightning-rod debut novel in the late 70s, to the throes of a consuming affair in the late 80s, and the messiness and pain of a disintegrating marriage in the late 90s—the diaries reveal the life of one of the world’s greatest writers.

Devastatingly honest and disarmingly funny, How to End a Story is a portrait of loss, betrayal, and the sheer force of a woman’s anger—but also of hard work and resilience, moments of hope and joy, the immutable ties of motherhood, and the regenerative power of a room of one’s own.

PRAISE:

‘Very well might be the finest literary diaries since Virginia Woolf’s...' Daunt Books

‘Compulsive reading’ Colm Tóibín, Irish Times

‘Utterly moreish’ [Best memoirs and biographies of 2025] Guardian

‘What a wonderful writer. Her prose is spare and beautiful...There are very few writers that I admire more.’ David Nicholls

‘An extraordinary work.’ Lucy Caldwell, Irish Times

‘A voice of great honesty and energy.’ Anne Enright

‘By turns dazzling, poignant and very, very funny.’ The Economist
‘The real value of this collection is the opportunity it affords us to see the domestic, ordinary, everyday world through Garner’s eyes.’ Washington Post

‘Feels urgent on every page.’ Observer

‘A devastating and engrossing portrait of passion, artistic conundrums, motherhood, rage, resignation... leaves you drunk with awe.’ Maria Semple

‘Brutally candid, exquisitely measured…gorgeous.’ [Our Favorite Books of 2025] Spectrum Culture (US)

‘I am reading Helen Garner’s diaries, and they’re amazing. I have them by my bed, and they’re huge thick volumes you can kind of dip in and out of. She is a very brilliant Australian novelist, and she’s published her diaries from the 1970s and 80s. They’re just little tiny vignettes and observations from her days. At one point, she says that she’s writing the best things and the worst things in her diary. She writes so beautifully. Her novels are beautiful, but her diaries are fascinating and very, very moving.’ Maggie O’Farrell