
How to End a Story: Collected Diaries
by Helen Garner
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A wonderful volume of diaries. Three volumes, collected. Garner is open and not afraid of showing her rougher edges. It is an examined life. A source book. A record of friendships, creativity and of her final marriage in particular, that to writer Murray Bail.
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Author Information

28+ Works 5,264 Members
Helen Garner was born on November 7, 1942 in Geelong, Australia. She received a bachelor's degree with majors in English and French from the University of Melbourne. Throughout her career, she has written both fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977. Her non-fiction books include The First Stone, Joe Cinque's show more Consolation, The Feel of Steel, True Stories and Everywhere I Look. She has also written for film and theatre. She has won numerous awards for her work including Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction for The Spare Room, For the This House of Grief, she won the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Barbara Jefferis Award, and the Ned Kelly Award in 2015, and in 2016, the WA Premier's Book Award for nonfiction. She was one of three winners of the 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize for nonfiction. Everywhere I Look won the 2017 Indie Book Award for Nonfiction. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- How to End a Story: Collected Diaries
- Alternate titles
- How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978-1998
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the one volume Collected Diaries edition previously published as 3 separate volumes. Editions of this should include Diaries from 1978-1998.
I have tried to separate the one volume collected from volume 3 alon... (show all)e. If it says 1994-1998, it's volume 3, please don't recombine with the whole collected edition.
Volume III of the Diaries published separately has the same title.
The Baillie Gifford Prize 2026 was awarded to the collected diaries edition published in 2025, not Volume 3 on its own.
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