This Australian novel is the journey of two women as their friendship is threatened by death. 'A perfect novel' Peter Carey

ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD In Monkey Grip, Helen Garner charts the lives of a generation. Set in Australia in the late 1970s, this seminal debut novel follows single mother and writer Nora as she navigates the tumultuous cityscape of Melbourne's bohemian underground, often with her young daughter Gracie in tow. But when Nora falls in love with the flighty Javo, she becomes snared in the web of a desperate relationship. Nora's addiction is romantic love; Javo's is hard drugs. The harder they pull away, the tighter the monkey grip. 'Smack habit, love habit - what's the...

'I revere Helen Garner's writing, and it's in her diaries that she's at her acute, rigorous, pitch-perfect best' Nigella Lawson 'I come back again and again to Garner's diaries and always find something new to admire. Her wit and observations are brilliant and her thoughts on writing are a guide' Daisy Johnson 'I love Helen Garner's diaries. I would read her grocery lists' Fatima Bhutto 'The diaries are the apotheosis of Helen Garner's entire career, and the most exciting thing she has ever published . . . Beautiful, riveting, formally electrifying' Lit Hub Looking out the window at...