This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial

‘This House of Grief has all the trademark Helen Garner touches: harrowing scenes recorded without restraint or censorship; touching observations of characters' weaknesses; wry moments of humour. And also customary with Garner's work, her words, and the boys' fate, will haunt us long after we've turned the last page’

Guardian

‘This House of Grief is a magnificent book about the majesty of the law and the terrible matter of the human heart. It has at 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

‘Compassionate and dispassionate in equal measure, Helen Garner takes us into the courtroom and shows a melting-pot of venality. She writes with a profound understanding of human vulnerability, and of the subtle workings of love, memory and remorse.’

Intelligent Life Magazine

‘This is a story you may think you know, but Garner will take you beyond headlines and hearsay and into the heart of humanity.’

Herald Sun

‘In its literary alchemy it crystallises fundamental questions that we need to keep asking about our legal system.’

Conversation

‘A superbly balanced book about a terribly freighted subject: a violation of parental care of the kind that provokes outrage rather than thoughtfulness. It is also an elegant reiteration of many of the themes and concerns that Garner has, over four decades, made her own.’

Saturday Paper

‘The twists and turns of this true-crime story are, in Garner’s hands, more engrossing and dramatic than any thriller. Really, this is the kind of book you’ll devour in one go, and it arguably has stronger literary claims even than Joe Cinque’s Consolation.’

Age

'Superbly done. Garner is one of the finest reporters in this country...She doesn't celebrate Farquarson's fate as a triumph. In the crimes and misdemeanours we commit against one another, she has always found clues to being human.'

David Marr, The Monthly

‘A brilliant, poetic work of jurisprudence...Another beauty of Garner's writing is her exceptional lyricism. Garner's spare, clean style flowers into magnificent poetry.’

Australian Book Review

‘Tender and electrifying. This House of Grief is Helen Garner's masterpiece.’

The Saturday Paper

‘True crime as true literature’

Olivia Ovenden, Observer UK