The Children'S Bach Av Helen Garner

<p>''A jewel of a novel about a perfect family falling apart''<br><b>DAVID NICHOLLS</b><br><br>''<i>The Children''s Bach</i> is Garner''s masterpiece''<br><b><i>PUBLIC BOOKS</i></b><br><br>''A perfect novel. I was so stunned that I wanted to run around the block''<br><b>RUMAAN ALAM</b><br><br>Athena and Dexter Fox are happy. They love each other. They are friends.<br><br>They live with their young sons in a sparsely furnished house near the Merri Creek: its walls cracking, its floors sloping and its doors hanging loosely in their frames. There is a piano in their kitchen.<br><br>But then, one day - years after their lives have taken different directions - Dexter runs into Elizabeth, an old friend from his university days. She brings into his world her loose-living musician boyfriend, Philip, and her seventeen-year-old sister, Vicki. <br><br>And all at once, the bonds that hold the Fox family together begin to fray.<br><br>Helen Garner''s perfectly formed novels embody Melbourne''s tumultuous 1970s and 1980s. Drawn on a small canvas and with a subtle musical backdrop, <i>The Children''s Bach</i> is a beloved work that weighs the burdens of commitment against the costs of liberation.<br><br><b>A W&N Essential</b></p>