This House of Grief

The Story of a Murder Trial

by Helen Garner

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy this Book on

Pub Date 26 Feb 2015 | Archive Date 02 Feb 2015

Text Publishing, Text Publishing Company

Nonfiction (Adult)

Description

On the evening of 4 September 2005, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother when his car plunged into a dam. The boys, aged ten, seven, and two, drowned. Was this an act of deliberate revenge or a tragic accident? The court case became Helen Garner's obsession. She was in the courtroom every day of Farquharson's trial and subsequent retrial, along with countless journalists and the families of both the accused and his former wife.

In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. At its core is a search for truth that takes author and reader through complex psychological terrain. Garner exposes, with great compassion, that truth and justice are as complex as human frailty and morality.

Part of a nonfiction tradition that began with Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and continues in the works of Janet Malcolm, Erroll Morris, and others.

Helen Garner, born in 1942, is the author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent novel The Spare Room was published to critical acclaim in 2010.

On the evening of 4 September 2005, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother when his car plunged into a dam. The boys, aged ten, seven, and two...

A Note From the Publisher

Released in the US and Canada 7 April 2015, pbk, US$16.95

Advance Praise

‘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

'A magnificent book about the majesty of the law and the terrible matter of the human heart... If you read nothing else this year, read this story of the sorrow and pity of innocents drowned and the specters and enigmas of guilt.' The Australian

‘There is something compulsive and sheer in her desire to bear witness to the darkest deeds of the heart, to experience the ordeal of justice as it brings them to the light. The twists and turns of this true-crime story are, in Garner’s hands, more engrossing and dramatic than any thriller.’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘Clear-eyed and deeply moving...Garner’s skills as a novelist combine with her journalistic incisiveness to give a vivid, compassionate and complex assessment of the crime and the societal issues surrounding it.’ NZ Herald

Praise for Helen Garner's The Spare Room:

"Helen Garner is a great writer." Peter Carey

"Swift, beautiful, and relentless." Alice Sebold

"The Joan Didion of Australia." Los Angeles Times

"Truthful, fearless, passionate." Kate Grenville

Marketing Plan

ACCLAIMED AUTHOR: Helen Garner's THE SPARE ROOM was published in the US by Picador in 2010, to a cascade of praise.

GENRE-DEFYING: Garner turns her attention to one of the most tragic cases in Australian criminal history, and brings her rare insight and integrity to an investigation of the nature of truth and justice. Her non-fiction reads like a novel and shines a torch into the gray lands of morality.

Garner exposes, with great compassion, that truth and justice are as complex as human frailty and morality—and that there are some cases in which 'justice' can never do justice.

Part of a powerful tradition of investigative and reflective nonfiction that began with Truman Capote's IN COLD BLOOD and has continued in the works of Janet Malcolm, Erroll Morris and others.

ACCLAIMED AUTHOR: Helen Garner's THE SPARE ROOM was published in the US by Picador in 2010, to a cascade of praise.

GENRE-DEFYING: Garner turns her attention to one of the most tragic cases in...