The Season

It’s footy season in Melbourne, and Helen Garner is following her grandson’s under-16s team. She not only goes to every game (give or take), but to every training session too, shivering on the sidelines at dusk, fascinated by the spectacle.

She’s a passionate Western Bulldogs fan (with an imperfect grasp of the rules) who loves the epic theatre of AFL football. But her devotion to the under-16s offers her something else. This is her chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him before he rushes headlong into manhood. To witness his triumphs and defeats, to fear for his safety in battle, to gasp and to cheer for his team as it fights for a place in the finals.

With her sharp eye, her generous wit and her warm humour, Garner documents this pivotal moment, both as part of the story and as silent witness. The Season is an unexpected and exuberant book: a celebration of the nobility, grace and grit of team spirit, a reflection on the nature of masculinity, and a tribute to the game’s power to thrill us.

Short-listed for Indie Book Award, Non-Fiction 2025 (Australia)

‘I understand zip about football or any sport, but I cried. Glorious.’ Charlotte Wood
‘[Garner] is working in epic mode in The Season as she examines familiar themes and preoccupations: masculinity and its codes, the pleasures and contradictions of social groups, what it means to bear witness…Garner has always been an extraordinary stylist and in The Season her prose, athletic, soars and dances, just like those young footballers.’ Guardian
‘The Season is marked by [Helen Garner’s] unsparing eye for detail and that superpower of detachment—a narrator who sees everything yet who is also deeply involved in the story, with emotional flourishes that rise when she watches her grandson.’ Age
‘Startling in its candour and compelling in its nakedness…A marvellous paean to the glories of youth just shy of the treacheries of manhood.’ Australian
‘Incredibly tender. About the seasons of football and the season of life…Written in her beautiful prose…I think people will enjoy it very much.’ Jason Steger, ABC RN The Bookshelf, Best Books of 2024
‘One of Australia’s greatest living writers.’ Canberra Times
‘A strong, beautiful book…The Garner of The Season is the Garner her readers know, with her exceptional control over language, her exceptional skill at observing and describing.’ Saturday Paper
‘The sentences are precise and they sing. [Garner] turns from philosophical reverie on mortality, or violence, or masculine shame, to capturing the looseness and love with which a family talks footy…It’s a book of gentle pleasures and deep meanings…As ever, when you put a Helen Garner book down and look up at the world again, you do so with newly sharpened eyes.’ Monthly
‘[Helen Garner’s] prose is as luminous as ever.’ Australian Book Review
‘A deeply talented and intelligent writer…In this book performed in a minor key, Garner the grandmother is on song, displaying the very qualities she exalts in athletes: candour, discipline, vigilance and valour.’ Conversation
‘Garner’s real subject is the broader terrain of grace, loyalty, grit and what it means to be masculine today…It’s classic Garner actually: taut, observant prose, sprinkled with wry “nanna jokes” and descriptions that bring the scenes to life.’ ArtsHub
‘[Garner’s] observational skills and her ability to drill down into character and place, make this not only an excellent memoir but also an examination of nascent masculinity, ageing, and the place of sport in contemporary life.’ Good Reading
‘Garner comes at football with a naive perspective and a poet’s eye for detail. She’s just opened the door to this new world and voraciously eats it up: the courage of the young players, the language of its commentators, the commitment of its supporters. Her insights into the game were illuminating and, for me, cast it in a new light. I must admit that I have done the reverse to Garner: after being a football fanatic, I had fallen out of football’s thrall in recent times. After reading this book, I watched my first full game in years. The Season will be appreciated by football fans, of course, but it contains multitudes. Just like the game itself.’ Readings
‘Over one footy season, Garner observes her youngest grandson’s U16 team at training and games, but of course, brings her vivid attention to masculinity, family, weather, ageing, our bodies, and much more.’ Matilda Bookshop
‘This is a book about sport. AFL. But this isn’t a polemic about football culture. This is, as Garner says, a nanna’s book about footy. Garner never says anything concrete. She dances around the roles of ritual in sport, and how it takes on a religious quality to those who follow it. Tracking her relationship with her youngest grandson over the season, she gives the utmost respect to the boys in the team and their constantly changing relationships with each other; they are the only characters (people?) with names in the entire book. The Season was a beautiful mix of sports and emotions, and while I didn’t learn a whole lot about the rules of AFL, I’m now obsessed with the relationship between Garner and her grandchildren.’ Better Read Than Dead
‘Characteristically sharp and tender. There’s nobody like Garner for her powers of observation and her keen appreciation of human beings.’ Michael Williams, Qantas Magazine
‘My new favourite book is Helen Garner’s The Season. She is one of Australia’s great writers and this new book is her hyper-focusing on her grandson’s footy team in west Melbourne…Not only is it a cool Melbourne story and connected to footy but it also feels like hanging out with your nanna.’ Broden Kelly, Guardian
‘The Season<.i> is Death in Venice with Sherrin Balls…[Has an] ineffable longing for inclusion and camaraderie. And [Helen Garner’s] uncanny ear for dialogue, its rhythms and pacing, remains spot on.’ Declan Fry, Best Books of 2024, Guardian
‘Her perfect prose and sharp observations are a joy.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘A gift of love to men, boys, parents and grandparents everywhere.’ Caroline Overington, Best Books of 2024, Australian
‘Is there anything more thrilling than reading Helen Garner on everyday things such as haircuts, the Melbourne skyline, ageing, AFL tactics, friendship and half-time oranges? A book for all seasons—not just the footy one!’ Gleaner
‘Regardless of your relationship to the sport, The Season is worth devouring—reflective of Garner’s ability to enthral us in any subject. Garner generously and joyously tells us about her relationship with her grandson Amby. It is refreshing and satisfying to read a book that is funny, perceptive of the complexities of masculinity but also current dialogues around gender, and is simply an ode to loving footy. It’s insightful into the lives of both teenage boys and 80-year-old women...So very “Melbourne”, it’s approachable, friendly, familiar, reminds me of my grandma, and a pleasurable Garner piece that will satisfy her loyalists! Read it!’ Paperback Bookshop

Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction. She was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature in 2019. And in 2023 she was awarded the ASA Medal for her outstanding contribution to Australian literature. Her works include Monkey Grip, The Children’s Bach, The First Stone, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, The Spare Room, This House of Grief and three volumes of her diaries. She lives in Melbourne.

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