The Girls

'Higgins spares nothing in her telling of the slow violence of grief, in the puzzlement of transformation and the skewing of sound mind from one instant of catastrophe...An exacting act of detonation, The Girls bares a talented writer's foundations at the same time as it raises the spirit of survival.' Kate Holden, author of In My Skin

WINNER OF THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD 2020
SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NON-FICTION 2020
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2020

In 2005, Chloe Higgins was seventeen years old. She and her mother, Rhonda, stayed home so that she could revise for her exams while her two younger sisters Carlie and Lisa went skiing with their father. On the way back from their trip, their car veered off the highway, flipped on its side and burst into flames. Both her sisters were killed. Their father walked away from the accident with only minor injuries.

This book is about what happened next.

In a memoir of breathtaking power, Chloe Higgins describes the heartbreaking aftermath of that one terrible day. It is a story of grieving, and learning to leave grief behind, for anyone who has ever loved, and lost.

MORE PRAISE FOR THE GIRLS

'A tender and heartfelt book, exploring the intricacies and long aftermath of trauma and grief with great frankness and directness. Its honest and exacting exploration of what happens to the body and the self in grief is deeply moving, without being excoriating, and the writing is both lyrical and tough - Higgins has a distinctive and accomplished voice, and this book is a beautiful achievement.' Fiona Wright

'An astounding new voice whose work mines the slippery regions between grief, sex, love, parents and children. This book is a rare find.' Felicity Castagna

'An urgent, poetic and skinless howl of a book.' Lee Kofman