Helen Garner praises Dua Lipa as ‘serious and sensitive' after musician adds Australian author to her book club

The Guardian

2 days ago

Helen Garner has praised Dua Lipa as a 'serious and sensitive' interviewer after being announced as the British superstar added Garner's 2014 courtroom drama to her monthly book club.
The Melbourne author's This House of Grief will be the first Australian inclusion on the popular list, taking Garner's 2014 non-fiction courtroom drama to the singer's growing global audience.
Lipa said Garner's book offered a 'sharp and forensic analysis of the human condition,' announcing the selection in an Instagram post.
'Although Helen has been writing for almost 50 years, her work is new to me and it's a thrilling discovery,' Lipa wrote.
'She's one of the most fascinating writers I have come across in recent years, and I'm sure that, like me, you'll find yourself diving into her back catalogue.'
Garner will join 23 high-profile authors championed by Lipa after the August publication of the interview, which the author described as 'fruitful'.
'I found her an impressive person, serious and sensitive and deeply interested in the difficult questions that the book raises,' Garner said.
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Lipa foreshadowed Garner's addition ahead of her interview series' move to streaming on Spotify in June.
'It wouldn't be my book pile without at least one harrowing story,' Lipa said at the time.
Garner won international acclaim for This House of Grief, a retelling of the trial of Victorian man Robert Farquharson over the murder of his three sons. Farquharson drove his three children into a dam in south-western Victoria in 2005.
The book received special mention in Garner's 2016 win of the US$150,000 (A$207,633) Windham-Campbell literary prize. The author first thought the award was hoax after an email in her junk folder from someone at Yale University who had 'good news' and wanted her phone number, she said at the time.
Garner, 82, came to local prominence after the 1977 publication of Monkey Grip but has enjoyed soaring popularity outside Australia in the last decade.
New editions of several of Garner's books were republished in the UK and US in 2023 and 2024.
Lipa shared a preview of her analysis announcing This House of Grief's selection on Instagram.
'[Garner's] not looking for monsters – her interest lies with ordinary people who seem to have been pushed beyond their emotional limits,' Lipa wrote.
'As the trial progresses, I found myself questioning my own reactions, asking myself less, 'Did he do it?' and instead, 'Is it possible to have empathy for this man, even if he did the worst thing imaginable?'.'
The 29-year-old singer has attracted more than 450,000 Instagram followers and nearly 100,000 YouTube subscriptions to her Service95 platform, which launched monthly book club picks in 2023.
Authors of each of Lipa's monthly book picks have sat for extended interviews with the singer, analysing their work and sharing music recommendations. The lone exception is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of 1967's One Hundred Years of Solitude, who died in 2014.
Garner's is the 24th book to be included and the first by an Australian author, in a list dominated by American books but spanning Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing to Guadalupe Nettel's Still Born.
Lipa has previously singled out Albanian author Ismail Kadare as a personal inspiration, saying the novelist's work encouraged her connection with her Kosovan-Albanian heritage in a keynote speech for the Booker Prize 2022 ceremony.
'I often wonder if authors realise just how many gifts they give us,' she said.