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  • This House of Grief

  • The Story of a Murder Trial
  • By: Helen Garner
  • Narrated by: Kate Hood
  • Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (184 ratings)

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This House of Grief

By: Helen Garner
Narrated by: Kate Hood
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Publisher's Summary

This House of Grief is a heartbreaking audiobook by one of Australia's most admired authors. Anyone can see the place where the children died. You take the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of Colac.

Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain.

On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father's Day, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother, Cindy, when his car left the road and plunged into a dam. The boys, aged 10, seven and two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident?

The court case became Helen Garner's obsession. She followed it on its protracted course until the final verdict.

In this utterly compelling audiobook, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom with its actors and audience - all gathered to witness to the truth - players in the extraordinary and unpredictable drama of the quest for justice.

©2014 Helen Garner (P)2016 Bolinda

What listeners say about This House of Grief

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fine telling of sad story

Helen Garner has recreated a very long trial and retrial which few of us would have sat through. It is a fine book, very well read here.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The shit car was his house of grief

A harrowing and heartbreaking story. Delicately and sensitively crafted. The shitty car with the footy on the wireless and the little boys face at the window. Little ones never forgotten.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting read

I started not knowing anything about this case at all. The book was informative and written well. I was interested right till the end.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Jo
  • 16-07-2020

I honestly tried

I didn’t want to start the book by disliking the narration. I tried to keep an open mind, I really did! I wanted to give the narrator a fair go but I am sorry - I have to agree the narration was hokey, over dramatic and distracted from a well-written account of an interesting trial.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Sue
  • 05-06-2018

Difficult topic well covered

An in-depth coverage of a murder trial in modern Australia. Well written and interesting, despite the horrendous content.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Worst reader EVER

I hate this reader so much. She ruined an extremely good book. When reading normally she was quite good, but as soon as characters spoke she put on horrible accents, as it's a court-based story, speech is constant. She gave the defendant and witnesses terribly done, 'occa Aussie' accents making them sound like they had low IQs and were idiots. The judges and prosecutor had hoity toity pseudo-British accents for some stupid reason, and the defence lawyer had a mixture of both. This also made the story seem biased, as it was a crime story - seemed like the narrator wanted the listener to think the defendant was stupid and guilty and the prosecution superior and more educated to the defence. This impression would not have come across in the text as written. Then she started putting on accents for American witnesses and it got to be too much. Not to mention her revolting depiction of people expressing emotion - whenever the text read '...she cried' or '...said through a choked voice' etc she put on this very hard to listen to pretend crying voice complete with sighs and whinging noises for bad effect.

I really enjoyed the story of this book but she absolutely ruined it to the point of every time a person spoke, I'd cringe and grimace waiting for her stupid voices to stop. I wish I'd just read the book not listened to it as I hated it and would never recommend it to anyone with this narrator.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Narration could have been better

I wish I actually read this book. The unfortunate story was well written, keeping me interested. However, the narrator's performance was irritable when quoting barristers and witnesses...

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

captive storytelling by Helen Garner.

Kate gave a great performance that rang true to Helen's voice. The story was raw with real emotions. I loved the book. Normally I wouldn't have read about the subject; to painful. Helen Garner is an amazing, honest writer. Her writing had me captivated the whole time.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Disturbing and brilliant

This is such a distressing story but incredibly well written and well performed. I couldn’t stop listening, even though I was familiar with the story. I felt like I was right there in the court room watching it play out.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written

This book is so eloquently written, the detail is poetic but crucial. To the author I say you have created yet another masterpiece.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.