Book Salad

Book Salad normally meets on the last Tuesday of every month, but this month we meet on Wednesday 19th. To make a salad you put together lots of different things you'd like to eat, and we do the same. Every month, instead of reading one kind of book, we mix genres. We tend to read mostly imaginative fiction but occasionally we pick non-fiction, even more occasionally a graphic novel, by authors from different ages and backgrounds.

For our November book, we will read 'This House of Grief' by Helen Garner, an interesting writer of fiction and non-fiction who at times explores events from her own life, and in several books, including this one, writes about her experience following criminal cases and attending trial. Later this year, a book she's co-written will be published, about the Erin Patterson murder trial, called "The Mushroom Tapes". I chose This House of Grief after I was complaining to my neighbour about a persistent cough I couldn't shake, and how I'd had to pull over while driving. She told me about this book, and when I read it I was captivated. 

" Father’s Day, 2005. Just after nightfall, a discarded husband drove his three young sons back to their mother, his ex-wife.

On that dark country road, barely five minutes from the children’s home, the old white car swerved off the highway and plunged into a dam. The father freed himself and swam to the bank, but the car sank to the bottom, and all the children drowned.

The court case that followed became Helen Garner’s obsession, one that would take over her life until its final verdict. The resulting book is a true-crime classic and literary masterpiece, which examines just what we are capable of and how fiercely we hide it from ourselves. "

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN‘S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

‘This House of Grief, in its restraint and control, bears comparison with In Cold Blood‘ - Kate Atkinson
‘It grabbed me by the throat in the same way that the podcast series Serial did’ - Gillian Anderson
‘Utterly gripping’ - Mark Haddon

If you want to join us on Wednesday the 19th of November you'll be very welcome.