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Vendor
Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
Original language
English

THE CHILDREN'S BACH

Helen Garner

With a new introduction by Ben Lerner

A captivating and deeply personal novel from one of Australia's most respected authors.

Athena and Dexter live a happy but insular life, bound by routine and the care of their young sons. When Elizabeth, an old friend from Dexter's university days, turns up with her much younger sister, Vicki, and her lover, Philip, she brings an enticing world to their doorstep. And Athena finds herself straining at the confines of her life.

Helen Garner portrays her characters with a clear eye for their dreams, their insecurities and their deep humanity in this intimate and engaging short novel, which was first published in 1984. The Children's Bach is ‘a jewel', in Ben Lerner's description, ‘beautiful, lapidary, rare'.

Helen Garner is one of Australia's finest authors. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction. Her novels include Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, Cosmo Cosmolino and The Spare Room.
Available products
Book

Published 2017-11-01 by Text Publishing

Comments

A perfect introduction for first-timers who have not yet experienced the pleasures of Garner's writing.

Garner's stories share characteristics of the postcard ... like postcards they are economically written, a bit of conversation is transcribed, a memory recalled, an event noted, scenes pass as if viewed from a train—momentarily, distinct and tantalising in their beauty.

"What a wonderful writer. Her prose is spare and beautiful, her stories are truthful and touching. There are very few writers that I admire more than Helen Garner." — David Nicholls "When I say The Children's Bach is a jewel, I don't only mean to offer a cliché of praise, although it is beautiful, lapidary, rare; I also mean that Garner captures the alternating transparency and opacity of others." — Ben Lerner

USA: Pantheon; Brazil: Todavia; Greece: Dardanos/Gutenberg; Turkey: Yapi Kredi Kultur Sanat;

Garner is a natural storyteller.