The children’s Bach

Helen Garner

£9.99

Available on back-order

Athena and Dexter live a happy but insular life, bound by routine and the care of their young sons. When Elizabeth, an old friend from Dexter’s university days, turns up with her much younger sister, Vicki, and her lover, Philip, she brings an enticing world into their doorstep. And Athena finds herself straining at the confines of her life.

ISBN: 9781399606820 Category:

Description

‘A jewel of a novel about a perfect family falling apart’
DAVID NICHOLLS

The Children’s Bach is Garner’s masterpiece’
PUBLIC BOOKS

‘A perfect novel. I was so stunned that I wanted to run around the block’
RUMAAN ALAM

Athena and Dexter Fox are happy. They love each other. They are friends.

They live with their young sons in a sparsely furnished house near the Merri Creek: its walls cracking, its floors sloping and its doors hanging loosely in their frames. There is a piano in their kitchen.

But then, one day – years after their lives have taken different directions – Dexter runs into Elizabeth, an old friend from his university days. She brings into his world her loose-living musician boyfriend, Philip, and her seventeen-year-old sister, Vicki.

And all at once, the bonds that hold the Fox family together begin to fray.

Helen Garner’s perfectly formed novels embody Melbourne’s tumultuous 1970s and 1980s. Drawn on a small canvas and with a subtle musical backdrop, The Children’s Bach is a beloved work that weighs the burdens of commitment against the costs of liberation.

A W&N Essential

Additional information

Weight 0.18 kg
Dimensions 19.6 × 12.8 × 1.8 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

176

Language

English

Edition

Reprint

Dewey

823.914 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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