THIS HOUSE OF GRIEF

The most heartbreaking book you have read in a long time

On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father's Day, Robert Farquharson was driving his three sons home to their mother Cindy. She and Robert had separated a year or so earlier. The boys lived with Cindy. On a lonely stretch of countryside about 100 kilometres from Melbourne, his vehicle left the road and plunged into a dam.

Farquharson struggled ashore and flagged down a passing car. He demanded to be driven to Cindy's house. His sons, Jai, Tyler and Bailey were drowned. The boys were ten, seven and two years old. The event was so traumatic, the deaths of the boys so terrible to contemplate, that people could not stop talking about the story of the car in the dam. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident?

Almost a year later, in August 2006, Farquharson was committed to stand trial for murder. Helen Garner was in the courtroom that day. The case became her obsession. She followed it on its protracted and unpredictable course until the final verdict.

In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. It is about the theatre of the courtroom whose drama is the quest for justice, its players all gathered to bear witness to the truth. THIS HOUSE OF GRIEF is an unputdownable book by one of Australia's most admired writers.

DREI SOEHNE
Ein Mordprozess
Deutsch von Lina Falkner
[HC: Berlin, 09/16]