Helen Garner – June 28 2020

Dry July – abstain from drinking alcohol to support adults who have cancer.

Helen is a journalist and writer of fiction and non-fiction. Educated at Melbourne University, Helen taught in Victorian secondary schools until 1972 when she was dismissed for answering her students’ questions about sex, and had to start writing journalism for a living. Her 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. Her screenplay The Last Days of Chez Nous was filmed in 1990. Helen’s many prizes include a Walkley Award for her 1993 article about the murder of two-year-old Daniel Valerio. In 1995 she published The First Stone, a controversial account of a Melbourne University sexual harassment case. Her non-fiction includes Joe Cinque’s Consolation, a non-fiction study of two murder trials in Canberra.

The Spare Room
Penguin, 2009; ISBN: 9781847672674
Helen has little idea what lies ahead when she offers her spare room to an old friend of fifteen years. Nicola has arrived in the city for treatment for cancer. Sceptical of the medical establishment, placing all her faith in an alternative health centre, Nicola is determined to find her own way to deal with her illness, regardless of the advice that Helen can offer. In the weeks that follow, Nicola’s battle against her cancer will turn not only her own life upside down but also those of everyone around her.

The Children’s Bach
Penguin Modern Classics Series, 2008; ISBN: 9780143180043
Athena and Dexter lead an enclosed family life, innocent of fashion and bound towards a disturbed child. Their comfortable rut is disrupted by the arrival of Elizabeth, a tough nut from Dexter’s past. With her three charming, chaotic hangers-on, she draws the couple out into a world whose casual egotism they had barely dreamed of. How can they get home again?