BOOK BRIEF

The Spare Room

Helen Garner
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The Spare Room

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008

Book Brief

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Helen Garner

The Spare Room

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008
Book Details
Pages

195

Format

Novel • Fiction

Genre
Modern Classic Fiction
Setting

Melbourne, Australia • 2000s

Topic
Grief & Death
Publication Year

2008

Audience

Adult

Recommended Reading Age

18+ years

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Super Short Summary

In The Spare Room by Helen Garner, a woman named Helen offers her spare room to a friend, Nicola, who seeks alternative treatment for terminal cancer. As Nicola's stay unfolds, Helen grapples with the emotional and practical challenges of caretaking, revealing deep insights into friendship, mortality, and the complexities of providing support during illness.

Contemplative

Emotional

Melancholic

Heartwarming

Reviews & Readership

4.0

9,135 ratings

70%

Loved it

23%

Mixed feelings

7%

Not a fan

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Review Roundup

Helen Garner's The Spare Room delivers a poignant exploration of friendship and the emotional toll of caregiving. Critics appreciate Garner's raw, affecting prose and the novel's authentic portrayal of complex relationships. Some find the narrative occasionally heavy due to its themes, but it remains a compelling, thought-provoking read.

Who should read this

Who Should Read The Spare Room?

A reader who enjoys The Spare Room by Helen Garner may appreciate intimate, introspective narratives and themes of friendship, care, and mortality. Similar readers may also be drawn to Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout or The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion for their poignant emotional depth.

4.0

9,135 ratings

70%

Loved it

23%

Mixed feelings

7%

Not a fan

Book Details
Pages

195

Format

Novel • Fiction

Genre
Modern Classic Fiction
Setting

Melbourne, Australia • 2000s

Topic
Grief & Death
Publication Year

2008

Audience

Adult

Recommended Reading Age

18+ years

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