True Stories

'Garner is a fascinating companion on the page' THE TIMES
'Her piercing intellect, fearlessness and compassion shine through in every word' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
'Helen Garner's work is a thrilling discovery' DUA LIPA

Helen Garner is one of Australia's most widely loved and critically acclaimed authors. She has published classic novels, true crime narratives, scripts, diaries, stories and plays. But, between it all, she paid the bills with journalism.

True Stories collects the revered Australian writer's short non-fiction written over a period of almost fifty years. In its pages, Garner visits the morgue and goes cruising on a Russian ship. She sees women giving birth, gets the sack for teaching her students about sex, attends a school dance and a gun show. She writes about dreaming, about turning fifty, about days spent in courtrooms following murder trials.

The result is an intoxicating, masterly collection of short non-fiction pieces, united by Garner's trademark honesty, humility and humour. A perfect companion to Garner's Baillie Gifford Prize-winning diaries How to End a Story, True Stories gives further insight into the life, mind and notebooks of a brilliant writer.

'A born noticer, someone on whom nothing is lost' COLM TÓIBÍN
'One of Australia's finest writers' OBSERVER
'Garner's unillusioned eye makes her clarity compulsive' NEW YORKER