The Pre-Loved edit from Shopbop
To share your reaction on this item, open the Amazon app from the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume One, 1978–1986 Hardcover – July 14, 2020

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 141 ratings

Bold, original and never one to shy away from the truth, Helen Garner's writing has shaped Australian literature. The author has kept a diary for almost all her life. But until now, those exercise books filled with her thoughts, observations, frustrations and joys have been locked away, out of bounds, in a laundry cupboard. Finally, Garner has opened her diaries and invited readers into the world behind her novels and works of non-fiction. Recorded with frankness, humor and steel-sharp wit, these accounts of her everyday life provide an intimate insight into the work of one of Australia’s greatest living writers. Volume one, traversing 1978-1986, takes readers through Garner's life following the publication of the seminal Australian novel Monkey Grip, to France and shows the reader a different side of the author.
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘A natural storyteller.’―James Wood, New Yorker

‘Garner’s stories share characteristics of the postcard: they flash before us carefully recorded images that remind us of harsher realities not pictured. And like postcards they are economically written, a bit of conversation is transcribed, a memory recalled, an event noted, scenes pass as if viewed from a train―momentarily, distinct and tantalizing in their beauty.’―New York Times

‘A perfect introduction for first-timers who have not yet experienced the pleasures of Garner’s writing.’ ―Sydney Morning Herald

'In some ways, the diaries are the apotheosis of her entire career, and the most exciting thing she has ever published.'―Literary Hub on Yellow Notebook

About the Author

Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction. Garner won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction for Postcards from Surfers, and the Victorian and Queensland Premiers’ Awards, as well as the Barbara Jefferis Award, for her novel The Spare Room. Everywhere I Look won the 2017 Indie Book Award for Non Fiction. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Text Publishing Company (July 14, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1922268143
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1922268143
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 141 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Helen Garner
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Helen Garner was born in 1942 in Geelong, and was educated there and at Melbourne University. She taught in Victorian secondary schools until 1972, when she was dismissed for answering her students’ questions about sex, and had to start writing journalism for a living.

Her first novel, Monkey Grip, came out in 1977, won the 1978 National Book Council Award, and was adapted for film in 1981. Since then she has published novels, short stories, essays, and feature journalism. Her screenplay The Last Days of Chez Nous was filmed in 1990. Garner has won many prizes, among them a Walkley Award for her 1993 article about the murder of two-year-old Daniel Valerio. In 1995 she published The First Stone, a controversial account of a Melbourne University sexual harassment case. Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004) was a non-fiction study of two murder trials in Canberra.

In 2006 Helen Garner received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature. Her most recent novel, The Spare Room (2008), won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier’s Award for Fiction and the Barbara Jefferis Award, and has been translated into many languages.

Helen Garner lives in Melbourne.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
141 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2021
    I am a journal writer. And so am fascinated by those of others. Our life experiences could not have been more disparate but I appreciated her spare honesty about herself and others. The lack of a fifth star is only because something. . . A kind of contradictory ness made me too uncomfortable. But not so much I won’t read her second volume from 1987 to 1995!
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2022
    I came to Garner's diaries after reading a review of them in the NY Review of Books. I had never read any of her other work, but I like reading diaries so I took a gamble on this. I'm so glad I did. Reading this is like listening to a close friend talk about her life. She is self-critical. She worries her talent is not big enough. She worries she's not suited for marriage or any other kind of ongoing romantic relationship. She struggles with her parents. And yet, she's funny, witty, sharp, quick to note the good in others. Reading this you'll want to reassure her: "Yes! You are good enough! You're going to get where you want to go!" I found the book addictive and have ordered four more of her books. It's so great to find a new writer you've not heard of before.
    One person found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • valerie
    4.0 out of 5 stars a cozy interesting diary
    Reviewed in Italy on October 20, 2022
    I like this diary for his honesty and sense of humour
  • Jessica
    5.0 out of 5 stars Genius at work
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2019
    Her perfect language [Amazon made me delete my quote of her swearing about housework], self doubt, trying new routines, her love for her daughter. Loved it all