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y separately published work icon The Spare Room single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 The Spare Room
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Helen lives in Melbourne, and her friend Nicola flies down from Sydney for a three-week visit. She will sleep in Helen's house, in her lovingly prepared spare room. This is no ordinary visit. Nicola has advanced cancer and is seeking alternative treatment from a clinic in Helen's city. From the moment Nicola steps off the plane, gaunt, staggering like a crone, her voice hoarse but still with something grand about her, Helen becomes her nurse, her protector, her guardian angel and her stony judge.' (Publisher's blurb)

Exhibitions

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18387981
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Adaptations

The Spare Room 2025 single work drama

'When Helen’s old friend, Nicola, comes to town for treatment, it only makes sense she should stay in the spare room. Nicola has put her faith in a shady alternative cancer clinic, and Helen is determined to be her brilliant friend and carer no matter what. But as the sleepless nights rack up, a short stay in the spare room becomes a loving, maddening battle for life.'

Source: Production blurb.

Notes

  • Epigraph: 'It is a privilege to prepare the place where someone else will sleep.' - Elizabeth Jolley
  • Epigraph: '... or is this the way the heart behaves when it grieves?' - Louise Gluck.
  • Briefly noted in the New York Times Book Review, 115.6 (7 February 2010): 24.
  • Reading Group Guide available through the Text Publishing website.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 8909906967026009301.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 195p.
      Note/s:
      • Published April 2008
      ISBN: 9781921351396 (pbk.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Henry Holt ,       2008 .
      image of person or book cover 4526316137398161234.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 175p.
      Note/s:
      • Published February 3rd 2009
      ISBN: 9780805088885
    • Edinburgh,
      c
      Scotland,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Canongate ,       2008 .
      image of person or book cover 3491297063082426278.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 195p.
      Note/s:
      • Published July 1st 2008
      ISBN: 9781847672650 (hbk.)
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2009 .
      image of person or book cover 6556153448437273202.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 208p.
      Note/s:
      • Published October 1st 2009
      ISBN: 9781921520280 (pbk.)
Alternative title: De logeerkamer
Language: Dutch
    • Amsterdam,
      c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       De Bezige Bij ,       2008 .
      image of person or book cover 4886814340102686920.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 164p.
      Note/s:
      • Published January 2008
      ISBN: 9789023428923
    • c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Colibri ,       2017 .
      image of person or book cover 5181998042434086965.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 192p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published September 19th 2017
      ISBN: 9789045340012, 9045340011
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Related Works

Tough Love Helen Garner , 2008 extract novel (The Spare Room)
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 March 2008; (p. 8-9)
Helen Garner on Death and Writing : 'Taking Someone Else's Trauma into the Centre of Me' Bernadette Brennan , 2017 extract autobiography (The Spare Room)
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 April 2017; 'In this excerpt from a book about the author’s career, Bernadette Brennan looks at Garner’s bestseller The Spare Room. Was it a novel, a memoir, or both?'
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)

Works about this Work

Helen Garner’s House of Fiction Brigid Rooney , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel 2023; (p. 163-177)

'This chapter considers Helen Garners fiction, assessing the evolution of her work from the scandalous diary-like immediacy of the Monkey Grip (1977) through to her minimalist masterpiece The Children’s Bach (1984). Throughout, it considers the house as a core spatial configuration that changes across Garner’s work.' (Publication abstract)
Short Takes XXII Alan Gould , 2017 single work diary
— Appears in: Quadrant , April vol. 61 no. 4 2017; (p. 96-99)
Confronting the Dark : Using Practice-led Research to Write about Death Karen M. Klima , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 35 2016; 'In this article, I describe how my personal experience of death prompted the writing of a novel and how the practice of writing about death led me to develop a critical inquiry into Continental philosophy and other theories of death. I discuss philosophical approaches to living authentically in the face of death and the human tendency to search for meaning. I undertake a close reading of Helen Garner’s The Spare Room (2008) in light of these issues and the changing attitudes to death since modernism, particularly the need for open communication about death and the importance for the dying in feeling that their life has significance for other people.' (Publication abstract)
A Friendship Tested in the Shadow of Death My Favourite Novel Edwina Shaw , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 February 2013; (p. 20-21)
Subject and Style Transformation of Helen Garner : A Comparative Study of Cosmo Comolino and The Spare Room Xiao-hong Xiang , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Xihua University , January vol. 32 no. 1 2013; (p. 45-49) 'Helen Gamer, an Australian female novelist, has tried to describe positive female images and establish female subjectivity in her early writing career. However, The Spare Room, her recently published novel, focuses on the female friendship and care, which are fully expressed by two elderly ladies in their conflicts arising either in the therapeutic process during which one helps her cancer-haunted friend or in the different attitudes toward fighting against death. This essay makes a comparative analysis of Gamer's two novels published in 1992 and 2008 separately, trying to reveal her change in feminist subject and narrative style within 15 years.' (Publication abstract)
 
[Review] The Spare Room David Gaunt , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , February vol. 87 no. 6 2008; (p. 38)
— Review of The Spare Room Helen Garner , 2008 single work novel
Opening Up the Spare Room Rachel Buchanan , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 29 March 2008; (p. 25)
— Review of The Spare Room Helen Garner , 2008 single work novel
Human Truths Revealed in Tale of Fight Against Mortality Geoffrey Lehmann , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 March 2008; (p. 8-9)
— Review of The Spare Room Helen Garner , 2008 single work novel
Unsentimental Dedication Pamela Bone , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , April vol. 3 no. 3 2008; (p. 4)
— Review of The Spare Room Helen Garner , 2008 single work novel
Gimlet-Eyed Meditation on Duties of Care Melinda Harvey , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 April 2008; (p. 12)
— Review of The Spare Room Helen Garner , 2008 single work novel
Between Two Worlds Deborah Bogle , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 29 March 2008; (p. 13)
It's Fiction and That's a Fact Jason Steger , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 29 March 2008; (p. 24-25) Helen Garner discusses her novel The Spare Room with Jason Steger. She explains her dissatisfaction with distinctions between fiction and non-fiction writing, and argues that readers want 'a space opened up by the author where they can linger and compare their experiences, thoughts and emotions with those of the character'.
Facts in the Fiction Susan Wyndham , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-30 March 2008; (p. 26-27)
Truly Helen Kate Legge , 2008 single work biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 29-30 March 2008; (p. 16-19, 21)
Life and Death Conversation Gillian Lord , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 April 2008; (p. 11-12)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (53)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (12)
Last amended 2 Mar 2025 11:40:24
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