Somewhere in the kaleidoscope between life and art sits Clare, whose story is Marion Halligan's The Fog Garden. Clare, like Marion, is a woman of a certain age whose much-loved husband of thirty-odd years has just died. And Clare, like Marion, is a novelist.

With the loss of such a marriage of true minds and kindred spirits Clare finds herself building a 'cathedral of grief' - and reeling into the arms of an old friend. Life and writing loop and spiral around Clare and the central enormous fact of her husband's death.

The Fog Garden is a rollercoaster of a story about the nature of fiction and how life creates art, how adultery can be liberating and how sex doesn't stop with age, and how grief is as much a gift as love.

Halligan has crafted a poignant and powerful novel, playing all the time on that dangerous ground between her own life and that of her heroine.

'Deeply moving, highly original and beautifully written... a brave and brilliant display, stolen from death and grief, which transforms the shreds of everyday life into art.' - Sally Blakeney, The Bulletin

'A rich, dynamic book that constantly delights and surprises.' - Liam Davison, The Weekend Australian

'It doesn't pull its punches - about death, love, sex or disaster - but it leaves the reader standing. And replenished.' - Dorothy Porter