{"product_id":"this-house-of-grief-the-story-of-a-murder-trial","title":"This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial","description":"\u003cp\u003eFinalist  2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award  Two books in one: an expertly reported  brilliantly written story and  woven into that  Garners meditation on the meaning of that story.Head Butler  The Joan Didion of Australia writes a masterful book about a real-life family tragedy....Her voice  intimate yet sharp  wry yet urgent  inspires trust as she pursues a twice-told tale that reveals an unsettling truth as relevant outside the courtroom as inside it: we tell ourselves stories in order to live but also in order to take revenge  to share guilt  to prolong pain  to blur memory and motive.The Atlantic  A gripping account of a murder trial in which few of the participants act and react in ways we might predict. Its an examination not just of what happened  but also of what we prefer to believe and what we cannot face believing.Julian Barnes  As involving  heart-rending and unsettling a read as you could possibly find  a true-life account of three deaths and a trial that leaves you with a profound sense of unease as its drama unfolds  and disturbing questions about how we judge guilt and innocence…Tailor-made for those who have gorged recently on the popular true-crime podcast Serial.The Times UK  Helen Garners account of the trial is a non-literary variation of Truman Capotes In Cold Blood (1966). It is all the more shocking for her direct  no-nonsense  often horrified  approach. Eileen Battersby  Irish Times  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 humor.Guardian  The twists and turns of this true-crime story are  in Garners hands  more engrossing and dramatic than any thriller. Really  this is the kind of book youll devour in one go.The Age  Clear-eyed and deeply moving…Garners skills as a novelist combine with her journalist incisiveness to give a vivid  compassionate and complex assessment of the crime and the societal issues surrounding it…This House of Grief is a book that preys on the mindits themes are enormous  classical and highly contemporary.NZ Herald  Garner sat through all the trials: sifting the evidence  observing the duelling lawyers  digging deep into the relationships which contributed to the catastrophe. She has turned a courtroom drama into something deeply human.Australian Womens Weekly  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 Garners obsession. She was in the courtroom every day of Farquharsons 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 Capotes In Cold Blood and continues in the works of Janet Malcolm  Erroll Morris  and others.  Praise for Helen Garners 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 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44986895728693,"sku":"ByrdShop_1922079200","price":75.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781922079206_330c40ea-e8c2-4f07-8347-b741e204af74.jpg?v=1772690395","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/this-house-of-grief-the-story-of-a-murder-trial","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}