![]() "If I don't have faith," Nicole tells her, "the only alternative is to lie down and say, OK, I give up. ![]() Helen is certain the treatment is phoney, but she tries to keep her mouth shut and allow her friend to at least hold onto hope. Though her cancer is officially terminal, Nicole has come all the way from Sydney to Melbourne to seek treatment at the Theodore Institute, a clinic that claims to be able to cure the incurable disease through a bizarre series of treatments that include steam tents and massive, debilitating injections of Vitamin C. I longed for the children next door, their small determined bodies through which vitality surged."Īt this point, the retired narrator, also named Helen, is about a week into a three-week visit from her cancer-ridden friend, Nicola. Its rules pushed new life away with terrible force. ![]() ![]() (It was published in Australia and elsewhere last year, but is only now appearing in Canada). "How had I got myself into this?" asks the narrator of celebrated Australian author Helen Garner's new novel, The Spare Room. ![]()
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