Helen Garner has narrated 5 audiobooks on Listento.it by 2 authors. The most-rated is The Children's Bach.
Stories
Summary
This collected short fiction celebrates one of Australia’s most loved authors. These stories - that delve into the complexities of love and longing, of the pain, darkness and joy of life - are all told with Helen Garner's characteristic sharpness of observation, honesty and humour. Each one a perfect piece, together they showcase Garner’s mastery of the form.
©2017 Helen Garner (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
True Stories
Summary
An extraordinary audiobook of non-fiction, spanning 25 years of work, by one of Australia's great writers.
Helen Garner visits the morgue, and goes cruising on a Russian ship. She sees women giving birth, and gets the sack for teaching her students about sex. She attends a school dance and a gun show.
She writes about dreaming, about turning 50 and the storm caused by The First Stone. Her story on the murder of the two-year-old Daniel Valerio wins her a Walkley Award.
Garner looks at the world with a shrewd and sympathetic eye. Her non-fiction, with its many voices, is always passionate and compelling. True Stories is an extraordinary audiobook, spanning 25 years of work, by one of Australia’s great writers.
©1996 Helen Garner (P)2017 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
The Poison Principle
Summary
A fascinating detective story and moving memoir of death and deceit. When Dr William Macbeth poisoned two of his sons in 1927, his wife and sister hid the murders in the intensely private realm of family secrets. Like the famous poisoner Dr Crippen, Macbeth behaved as if he were immune to consequences; unlike Crippen, he avoided detection and punishment...or did he? As time passed, the story of Dr William Macbeth, well-dressed poisoner, haunted and divided his descendants. Macbeth's granddaughter Gail Bell, who grew up with the story, spent 10 years reading the literature of poisoning in order to understand Macbeth's life. A chemist herself, she listened for echoes in the great cases of the 19th and 20th centuries, in myths, fiction and poison lore. This intricate story, with a moving twist at the end, is a book about family guilt and secrets, and also an exploration of the nature of death itself as Bell turns to her grandfather's poisonous predecessors, from Cleopatra, Madame Bovary and Napoleon to prolific serial killer, Harold Shipman.
©2016 Gail Bell (P)2017 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Monkey Grip
Summary
Inner-suburban Melbourne in the 1970s: a world of communal living, drugs, music and love - Garner captures the fluid relationships of a community of friends. Helen Garner’s gritty, lyrical first novel divided the critics on its publication in 1977. Today, Monkey Grip is regarded as a masterpiece - the novel that shines a light on a time and a place and a way of living never before presented in Australian literature: communal households, music, friendships, children, love, drugs and sex. When Nora falls in love with Javo, she is caught in the web of his addiction; and as he moves between loving her and leaving, between his need for her and promises broken, Nora’s life becomes an intense dance of loving and trying to let go.
©1977 Helen Garner. Introduction copyright Charlotte Wood 2018 (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
The Children's Bach
Summary
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.
©1984 Helen Garner (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd