This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial

4 4 out of 5 stars | 2,640 ratings

Price: 17.05

Last update: 11-29-2024


About this item

This House of Grief is a heartbreaking audiobook by one of Australia's most admired authors. Anyone can see the place where the children died. You take the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of Colac.

Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain.

On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father's Day, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother, Cindy, when his car left the road and plunged into a dam. The boys, aged 10, seven and two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident?

The court case became Helen Garner's obsession. She followed it on its protracted course until the final verdict.

In this utterly compelling audiobook, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom with its actors and audience - all gathered to witness to the truth - players in the extraordinary and unpredictable drama of the quest for justice.


Top reviews from the United States

David P. Chandler
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful, very distressing book
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2014
Helen Garner, a superb writer, is Australia's "answer" to Janet Malcolm, and this rich, intense and very disturbing book, like some of Malcolm's, takes us to places in human behavior and the human psyche that we might prefer to avoid-- and she does this with no judgmental disdain .
Several years ago a 37 year old father of three drove his 3 small boys , suddenly, into a deep farm- pond in rural Australia. He survived. They didn't. He was separated from the children's mother, and distressed by this. He was tried for murder, and was eventually sentenced to many years in prison. Garner asks us to consider what happened, and why things happened as they did. As a participant-observer, \she followed the meandering trial through the judicial system, which at the same time tried to be fair and was intensely competitive. A masterful, empathic, and very distressing book.
sb-lynn
4.0 out of 5 stars Impressive crime novel; realistic courtroom scenes
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2015
In Victoria, Australia after a Father's Day visit in 2005, Robert Farquharson drove his car into a dam. His three young children did not survive but Farquaharson did. Within a few days he was charged with their murder. In this impressive book, Garner gives us a courtroom drama that takes us into the courtroom during his trial(s.)

That this was a heartbreaking true-life tragedy was beyond dispute, but the question all along was whether or not it was a tragic accident or whether the defendant knowingly went into the water as some sort of suicide attempt or desire to punish his soon-to-be ex-wife, Cindy Gambino.

Helen Garner takes us inside the courtroom and she brilliantly makes us go back and forth in our own opinions about what happened. She does this in part by having us read the testimony of any given prosecution or defense witness and has us convinced of something and then has us follow the the cross-examination where our opinions change once again. It's so impressive and as a former courtroom trial attorney, I can tell you it's very impressive and real.

It's so hard to think that a man - especially one who adored his children - would kill them. But you also know it's possible. The author really helps us understand what the jury must've gone through making their difficult decision and how trials can seemingly go in the favor of one side only to change momentum and lean towards the other.

Really terrific. I thought there were some slower bits when I was tempted to skim when the author goes into details such as with the testimony of dueling experts - but that's what helps makes this so real and shows why it's so hard for us to form an opinion about what really happened.
Edwin Relf
3.0 out of 5 stars Really? Guilty? I'm not sure.
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2015
Helen Garner is and OK writer, though she uses too many adjectives. Her reportage of the trial of this poor sap of a man - Farquarson - is depressing, turgid and gruelling. (Just to add some more adjectives!) If it weren't fact I whould have thought it was ridiculous fiction. As I noted, the book is a report of the murder trial, so there is very little extra to that story except some comment from other reporters at the trial and some of those 'comments' represented cliche reactions to the tragedy of the Farquarson family. Farquarson, kicked out of home by his wife, and on an access visit with his three sons, drives his car with his three boys in it, into an agricultural dam (pond) while, he claim, he is having a coughing fit. He survives. The three sons don't. He is charged with three counts of murder. But, was it murder, a murder suicide gone wrong, manslaughter or a tragic accident. Two trials pronounced the man guilty of murder. But was he. Garner's reports of matters that were discussed in the court between the barristers and the Judge but without the jury present add infromation contextural to the life of this man in the dock that seem to be to be crucial to a consideration of motive yet this justice system did not allow it to go forward as evidence. In this sense, this book is somewhat about the Justice system as well as it is about this particular trial. The brayers for blood in this case wanted Farquarson to go down believing that the man maliciously had killed his children to spite his estranged wife. After reading Garner's book, I'm not convinced.
Pop culture man
5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing that will seize your mind
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2014
This is a haunting meditation on a shocking crime. Garner draws you into the terror of the night when three children lost their lives and asks you to consider all the possible scenarios: premeditated murder, failed murder-suicide or accident. There's no certainty from the evidence and the accused man's wretchedness and despair is evident throughout the trial. Garner's writing skill and novelist's eye illuminate the trial such that it will live in your mind long after you close the book. This is one of the finest true crime books, one of the most piercing analyses of a criminal trial you will ever read.
Springtime
4.0 out of 5 stars Every change in the atmosphere is conveyed with great detail. As both Helen & Lex Lasery observed
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014
Helen Garner is a master observer & a meticulous researcher. She needs a medal just for having sat through the trial not once but twice The book is totally absorbing. Each scene is gripping as she leaves no stone unturned. You feel so much a part of the lives of all the characters. Every change in the atmosphere is conveyed with great detail. As both Helen & Lex Lasery observed, only Rob knows what really happened that night. He was a simple soul, definitely just an average Joe unable to cope with his wife's rejection. I don't think he meant to drown his children. I have no doubt he loved them. I don't think he realized how deep the dam was. Having said that, his reaction at the dam was definitely not one of a loving father no matter what the expert witness for the defence maintained. Were the subsequent coughing fits contrived? And yet, if he thought he was going to give his wife a bit of a fright, she would have made sure he had no further access to the kids. Why wouldn't he see her when in prison when she was still totally supportive of him? I truly think he believed & probably still does that he was innocent. Whilst I really enjoyed the book all the unanswered questions are driving me nuts.

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