The Spare Room

From "the Joan Didion of Australia" a novel of female friendship written "with a diamond drill, depicting human relationships with such brutal clarity" (April Smith, Los Angeles Times).

How much of ourselves must we give up to help a friend in need? Helen has little idea what lies ahead—and what strength she must muster—when she offers her spare room to an old friend, Nicola, who has arrived in the city for cancer treatment. Skeptical of the medical establishment, and placing all her faith in an alternative health center, Nicola is determined to find her own way to deal with her illness, regardless of the advice Helen offers.


In the weeks that follow, Nicola's battle for survival will turn not only her own life upside down but also those of everyone around her. The Spare Room is a magical gem of a book—gripping, moving, and unexpectedly funny—that packs a huge punch, charting a friendship as it is tested by the threat of death.


"Helen Garner is a great writer; The Spare Room is a great book." —Peter Carey, Booker Prize–winning author of Oscar and Lucinda

"The work gains focus from Garner's characteristically controlled and unsentimental tone: the train station is "a seven-minute walk from my house, twenty if you had cancer." —The New Yorker

"Swift, beautiful, and relentless, The Spare Room is a brutal novel in the best sense." —Alice Sebold, New York Times–bestselling author of The Lovely Bones

"My favorite discovery of the year." —Anne Enright, Booker Prize–winning author of The Gathering

"Luminous." —Claire Messud, Newsweek

"A Molotov cocktail of a book." —Emily Carter, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Highly recommended." —Library Journal, starred review