In the autumn of 1992, two young women students at Melbourne University went to the police claiming that they had been indecently assaulted at a party. The man they accused was the head of their co-ed residential college. The shock of these charges split the community and painfully focused the debate about sex and power. —This is writing of great boldness and it will wring the heart... an intense, eloquent and enthralling work.—AUSTRALIAN—This was never going to be an easy book to write, its pages are bathed in anguish and self-doubt, but suffused also with a white-hot anger. —GOOD WEEKEND—Travelling with Garner along the complex paths of this sad story is, strangely enough, enjoyable. The First Stone [is] a book worth reading for its writing. —SYDNEY MORNING HERALD —... Garner has ensured one thing: the debate about sexual harassment... will now have a very public airing. And it will have it in the language of experience to which all women and men have access. —AGE
Author
Helen Garner was born in Geelong in 1942. She has published many works of fiction including Monkey Grip, Cosmo Cosmolino and The Children's Bach. Her fiction has won numerous awards. She is also one of Australia's most respected non-fiction writers, and received a Walkley Award for journalism in 1993. Her most recent books are The First Stone, True Stories, My Hard Heart, The Feel of Stone and Joe Cinque's Consolation. In 2006 she won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. She lives in Melbourne. Praise for Helen Garner's work 'Helen Garner is an extraordinarily good writer. There is not a paragraph, let alone a page, where she does not compel your attention.' Bulletin 'She is outstanding in the accuracy of her observations, the intensity of passion...her radar-sure humour.' Washington Post 'Garner has always had a mimic's ear for dialogue and an eye for unconscious symbolism, the clothes and gestures with which we give ourselves away.' Peter Craven, Australian 'Helen Garner writes the best sentences in Australia.' Ed Campion, Bulletin
