Hard Joy

Susan Varga's memoir covers a varied life across seven decades, circling between Australia and Europe, activism and seclusion, everyday life and the writing life.

This compelling memoir of Susan Varga's life spans seven decades and circles between Australia and Europe, activism and seclusion, everyday life and the writing life.

She was born into war-torn Budapest but her family escaped loss and trauma to make a new life in Sydney. Susan makes another escape, from the narrow confines of suburbia into the arms of the exciting and contradictory world of the Sydney Push. As a young woman she lives in London, Paris, Bendigo and Holland, before returning to Sydney, keen to take part of Gough Whitlam's reformist agenda, in a powerful time of change.

Yet Susan also spends a long time lost in the wilderness, wrestling with the raft of dilemmas of the life of a woman. When she finally commits to the demands and joys of writing, and to a surprising love, her life assumes a new harmony. Fate then intervenes to throw up major challenges, testing her will to re-find the hard joys of life.

In this memoir, Susan Varga moves through the intersections between her own life and the wider world, with an incisive portrait of our times.

"Written with tremendous honesty and clarity of expression, it is enhanced by black-and-white photographs and punctuated by occasional poetry. Don't let this put you off—Varga is a born poet, even if it did take her most of her life to realise it, and the poems deepen and transcend the prose on the page." Julia Taylor, Books+Publishing