This House of Grief

A W&N Essential with an introduction by Rachel Cooke

Father's Day, 2005. Just after nightfall, a discarded husband drove his three young sons back to their mother, his ex-wife. On that dark country road, barely five minutes from the children's home, the old white car swerved off the highway and plunged into a dam.

The father freed himself and swam to the bank, but the car sank to the bottom, and all the children drowned. The court case that followed became Helen Garner's obsession, one that would take over her life until its final verdict. The resulting book is a true-crime classic and literary masterpiece, which examines just what we are capable of and how fiercely we hide it from ourselves.