True Stories

Praise for Everywhere I Look

'Garner is scrupulous, painstaking, and detailed, with sharp eyes and ears. She is everywhere at once, watching and listening, a recording angel at life’s secular apocalypses.'—James Wood, New Yorker

‘A thoughtful dissection of the emotional anatomy of the everyday.'—Financial Times

‘Garner brings to the collection not only her tremendous powers of observation but a continued employment of those skills to force readers to confront unpleasant truths. The graceful prose with which she delivers her insights will challenge readers to look at what is happening around them.’—Library Journal [starred review]

‘This is Garner in expansive mood writing gracefully about everything from her family to ballet to the dawn service.’—Spectator

‘These and other richly human subjects connect the author emotionally to her readers...Like strolling around in an idiosyncratic, surprising, and informative museum.’—Kirkus

‘Captivating…No matter the topic, Garner is a charming and courageous writer whose distinctive voice exemplifies the range of what is possible in persona writing.’—Publishers Weekly

‘Imagine a writer who writes with the humor and precision of Joy Williams, the warmth and ferocity of Elena Ferrante, and the investigative rigor of Janet Malcolm…Read this book and you will wonder how you lived for years without Garner’s voice in your ear.'—John Freeman, LitHub

‘A book with a big scope, both in terms of the subjects covered and of the stylistic approaches used to discuss them—a great reminder of the range of the essay as form.'—Signature

‘The entire experience of reading Garner…opens up the sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious discord of our lives.’—Irish Times

‘It's totally bizarre that Garner isn't a household name in the UK (she's Australian). Everything she writes is a small masterpiece.’—Metro

‘Garner is a wonderful appreciator…Her strongest essays evoke emotion through reticence and suggestiveness. They hint at depth of thought and feeling but never become ponderous. And they reveal both the writer and the world by inviting us into her thoughts so that we can see what she sees.’—Open Letters Monthly

‘Garner shows us something precious and endangered…the nexus of neighbourhoods and neighbourliness, the simple weatherboard houses and the plain local shops in the suburbs of Fitzroy and Moonee Ponds. In the most ordinary suburb, as in the most extraordinary marine wilderness, what lies beneath is as fascinating as life on the surface.’—Times Literary Supplement