'If anyone was wondering whether Helen Garner, at the age of 79, was still able to write a strong, beautiful book, rest assured: she can, she has. The Garner of The Season is the Garner her readers know, with her exceptional control over language, her exceptional skill at observing and describing. Here, she can give us a skyscraper, at sunset, with its “ethereal mineral glow”, or just her dog, sleeping on the couch, with the “stringy tendons of his hind legs and the coarse, dry pads of his paws”.' (Introduction)