The Spare Room

I’ll admit the set-up is not promising even in the best of times: two upper-middle-aged/class friends, one with cancer, the other caring for her. BUT STICK WITH ME! In the highly capable hands of one of Australia’s most celebrated authors, there’s no bathos or cliche to be found in this sharply entertaining novel, which might end up my favorite of this unimaginable year. Garner is as famous for her journalism as her fiction, and the specificity of her details and dialogue is so ordinarily odd that they just feel true. The narrator (a writer named Helen) sounds like she’s talking to you—her friend, you hope—because she’s so smart, funny and recognizably human: she knows she’s imperfect but would prefer to be less so. And since actual events don’t unfold neatly, Garner cleverly structures her story to uphold that reality while delivering a satisfying narrative. This slim, unassuming book reminded me that an everyday miracle of creativity can reassure us of the everyday miracle of kindness.