W&N Essentials, Monkey Grip

The novel that launched the career of one of Australia's greatest writers, following the doomed infatuations of a young, single mother, enthralled by the excesses of Melbourne's late-70s counterculture,

ONE OF THE BBC''S 100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD

''Seductive as hell. Brilliant, unusual, breathtaking'' Lauren Groff
''There are very few writers that I admire more than Helen Garner'' David Nicholls
''A revelation. Its pages radiate sex and heat, chlorine and rock''n''roll'' Madelaine Lucas

In 1970s Melbourne, Nora is a happy woman.

She is happy moving between the city''s communal households, with her little daughter. Happy with days spent at the public pool, and nights spent dancing and drinking and talking and smoking and loving freely.

But then Nora meets Javo. Javo, with his crooked, wrecked, wild face and his violently blue eyes. And soon she is trapped in the monkey grip of his drug addiction and her own obsessive love for him.

On its first publication in 1977, Monkey Grip was both a sensation and a lightning rod in its frank portrayal of the lives of a generation. Now a modern classic, it shows Helen Garner''s dazzling and radical literary voice.

A W&N Essential with an Introduction by Lauren Groff