Helen Garner has won the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978-1998!
This marks the first time the prize has been awarded to a diary in its more than twenty-year history – chair of judges Robbie Millen said Garner has taken the form 'mixing the intimate, the intellectual, and the everyday, to new heights'.
While Australian readers have loved Garner's writing for years, it is exciting to see the growing international recognition for this iconic local author. We're thrilled to have How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978-1998 available at the special price of $49.99 (was $59.99), as well as limited signed copies online and in shops, while stocks last!
How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978-1998
Helen Garner
Helen Garner's acclaimed three volumes of diaries are collected here in one sumptuous book.
Spanning two decades-from the publication of her lightning-rod debut novel in the late 70s, to the throes of a consuming affair in the late 80s, and the messiness and pain of a disintegrating marriage in the late 90s – the diaries reveal the life of one of the world's greatest writers.
Devastatingly honest and disarmingly funny, How to End a Story is a portrait of loss, betrayal, and the sheer force of a woman's anger – but also of hard work and resilience, moments of hope and joy, the immutable ties of motherhood, and the regenerative power of a room of one's own.
The judges said:
'Garner’s candid, pacey diary chronicles the end of her second marriage and the challenges of being a writer. There is a skilled narrative drive which presents a lot of personal material that keeps you hooked, not necessarily on what is happening in terms of the story, but about Garner's whole life and about what's going on outside her window.'
Read more about the Baillie Gifford Prize and Garner's win here.
