'Arguably Australia’s most celebrated living author, Helen Garner has built a reputation as a fearless and unapologetic writer whose work has remained fresh and relevant for over 45 years. We sat down with Helen to explore the challenges of confessional non-fiction, her fondness for church, and her commitment to unsparing self-analysis. '
'Eighty years ago, Catholics sought the great Catholic Novel. Candidates such as Graeme Greene, Evelyn Waugh, JF Powers and Walter Percy were mentioned and often found wanting. The deeper question, of course, is what might count as a Catholic novel, and indeed whether a novel that was distinctively Catholic could be a great novel. At a time highlighted by Hitler, Stalin and war the specifically Catholic themes were often identified as sin and forgiveness focused on the tortured death of Christ. Graeme Green’s novel Brighton Rock was taken to invite the question whether the antihero Pinkie, who at the end of the novel jumps suicidally from a cliff, might have repented between the cliff top and the water. ' (Introduction)
