Winner of several prestigious prizes, The Spare Room is extraordinary writer Helen Garner's intense, moving investigation of the boundaries and limits of a lifelong friendship.As the novel opens, Helen lovingly prepares the spare room in her home for her dear friend Nicola, who is coming to visit for three weeks while receiving controversial treatment for late-stage cancer. From the moment Nicola staggers off the plane, gaunt and hoarse but still somehow grand, Helen becomes her nurse, her guardian angel, and her stony judge. The Spare Room tells an unforgettable story full of complex humour, rage, and compassion.
Winner of several prestigious prizes, The Spare Room is extraordinary writer Helen Garner's intense, moving investigation of the boundaries and limits of a lifelong friendship.As the novel opens, Helen lovingly prepares the spare room in her home for her dear friend Nicola, who is coming to visit for three weeks while receiving controversial treatment for late-stage cancer. From the moment Nicola staggers off the plane, gaunt and hoarse but still somehow grand, Helen becomes her nurse, her guardian angel, and her stony judge. The Spare Room tells an unforgettable story full of complex humour, rage, and compassion.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Feb 1, 2009 |
| Specifications | 200 pages | 5 in x 7.81 in |
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| Written By | Helen Garner has been published novels, stories, nonfiction, and journalism. She lives in Melbourne. |
| Written By |
| Helen Garner has been published novels, stories, nonfiction, and journalism. She lives in Melbourne. |
Long-listed, IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2010
Short-listed, Commonwealth Writers' Prize - Best Book, 2009
“Garner should be better known in this country. Utterly unsentimental, facing death without shyness, rightly praised by Peter Carey, The Spare Room is...powerful...” —New Yorker
“Helen Garner's writing pulls you in, and makes you want to know her characters. This is a book that will speak to people as they get older. I was in tears. You know how it ends, but it had me wondering if I would have the necessary patience to care for someone who is ill. Garner is a beautiful writer.” —Lynn Tompson, Bookseller
“Pain is not often detailed so exactly in fiction...Every detail of life glows with the energy field of ordinary things, about which [Garner] writes so beautifully...I read it in one sitting, leaning forward in my chair...” —Globe and Mail
“...A book so sensitive, sad, funny, and alive, it surely deserves an honoured place on many shelves.” —Daily Telegraph
“[A] daring and dazzling novel...[Garner] writes with a diamond drill, depicting human relationships with such brutal clarity they seem to be rendered for the first time...The scenes evoking...the outrageous laughter you can share only with a dear friend are as light and appealing as a summer's day...you can trust Helen Garner. As deeply as she'll take you into the darkest territory of the heart, she will not abandon you.” —LA Times
“[The Spare Room] cuts to the bone of what friendship comes to mean to two women...reads as memoir, or a rant of despair, frustration and blackly comic rage...Garner does more with this simple story in under 200 pages than many authors do with complex narratives in lengthy novels...not to be missed.” —Winnipeg Free Press
“A perfect novel, imbued with all of Garner's usual clear-eyed grace...How is it that she can enter this heartbreaking territory - the dying friend who comes to stay - and make it not only bearable but glorious and funny? There is no answer except: Helen Garner is a great writer; The Spare Room is a great book.” —Peter Carney
“Helen Garner was my favourite discovery of the year.” —Anne Enright