This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial

"Helen Garner’s account of the trial is a non-literary variation of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1966)." — Eileen Battersby, Books of the Year, Irish Times 

On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father's Day, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother, Cindy, when his car left the road & plunged into a dam. The boys, aged ten, seven & two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident? The court case became Helen Garner's obsession. She followed it on its protracted course until the final verdict.

In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the story of a man & his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom with its actors & audience, all gathered for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth, players in the extraordinary & unpredictable drama of the quest for justice. This House of Grief is a heartbreaking & unputdownable book by one of Australia's most admired writers.

In This House of Grief, celebrated writer Helen Garner tells the definitive & deeply absorbing story of it all, from crash to final verdict. Through a panoply of perspectives, including her own as a member of the public, Garner captures the exacting procedure & brutal spectacle of Australia’s criminal justice system. The result is a richly textured portrait—of a man & his broken life, of a community wracked by tragedy, & of the long & torturous road to closure.

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Helen Garner's first novel, Monkey Grip won the 1978 National Book Council Award, & was adapted for film in 1981. Since then she has published novels, short stories, essays, & feature journalism. In 2006 Helen Garner received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature. Her most recent novel, The Spare Room (2008), won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier's Award for Fiction & the Barbara Jefferis Award.