How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998

For the first time ever, collected here are all three volumes of the diaries of Helen Garner, inviting readers into the world behind the novels and nonfiction of a literary force.

"This is one for the introverts -- the wary and the peevish, the uncertain of their looks, taste, talent and class status . . . . [Garner's] prose is clear, honest, and economical; take it or leave it."--Dwight Garner, New York Times Book Review

The name Helen Garner commands near-universal acclaim. A master of many literary forms, Garner is best known for her frank, unsparing, and intricate portraits of "ordinary people in difficult times" (New York Times). But the inspiration for it all was her extensive collection of diaries--fastidiously kept, intricately written, and delightfully dishy, unspooling the inner lives of her insular world in bohemian Melbourne.

Now, for the first time, all three volumes of Garner's inimitable diaries are collected into one book. Spanning more than two decades, each finely etched volume reveals Garner like never before: a fledgling author publishing her lightning-rod debut novel in the late 70s; in the throes of a consuming affair in the late 80s; and clinging to a disintegrating marriage in the late 90s. And all the while, they bear witness to one of the world's great writers hard at work.

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 resilience, quotidian moments of joy, the immutable ties of motherhood, and the regenerative power of a room of one's own.

Author: Helen Garner
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 03/11/2025
Pages: 832
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.40lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.30w x 1.70d
ISBN: 9780553387490


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2025
Booklist 03/01/2025 pg. 34
Shelf Awareness 03/21/2025

About the Author
Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays, and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Non-fiction. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. Her books include Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, Cosmo Cosmolino, The Spare Room, The First Stone, This House of Grief, Everywhere I Look, and her diaries The Yellow Notebook, One Day I'll Remember This, and How to End a Story.