This House of Grief by Helen Garner

Judges' comments

This ‘true-crime’ narrative has the fundamental elements of a Greek tragedy— love abandoned, a terrible vengeance, justice and retribution — all enacted in a quiet country town. A father has killed his own three young sons — drowned them by driving into a dam — in order to punish their mother, who has a new lover. The narrative follows the murder trial of the father, who claims the death of his children was accidental.

With a forensic dedication to piecing the evidence together, Garner unfolds the story, not as a detached observer but as a fellow human being. She illuminates the characters and events, and her own responses, with careful attention and compassion. While allowing us to see her own humanity, she never puts herself above the characters involved in the trial. With clarity and flawless prose, Garner becomes our witness to horror; she will not let us look away and say it has nothing to do with us. More than a dramatic courtroom story, This House of Grief is an insightful meditation on the ways we construct both memory and truth and a revelation of the complexities and contradictions of the human heart.