Helen has little idea what lies ahead when she offers her spare room to an old friend. Nicola has arrived in the city for treatment for cancer. Sceptical of the medical establishment, placing her faith in an alternative health centre, Nicola is determined to find her own way to deal with her illness, regardless of the advice that Helen can offer. Helen has little idea what lies ahead when she offers her spare room to an old friend of fifteen years. Nicola has arrived in the city for treatment for cancer. Sceptical of the medical establishment, placing all her faith in an alternative health centre, Nicola is determined to find her own way to deal with her illness, regardless of the advice that Helen can offer. In the weeks that follow, Nicola's battle against her cancer will turn not only her own life upside down but also those of everyone around her. "The Spare Room" is a magical gem of a book that packs a huge punch, charting a friendship as it is tested by the threat of death. "* 'Garner is a storyteller, an observer...Her style is beautifully simple...People who are on a fixed diet of fiction or who graze on airport shelves could cleanse their palates with Garner as they might once have done with Jane Austen.' - Sydney Morning Herald * 'Helen Garner writes the best sentences in Australia.' - The Bulletin * 'Garner, in everything she writes, is an indelible stylist, a shaper of events, a distiller of meaning' - ABR"