The woman’s name is Nora, and she’s getting out of the pool when she goes to look at the guy she’s seeing and sees something better: a sexy stranger, Javo, who radiates a type of bruisy depth. He ...

The Australian author Helen Garner’s first novel, Monkey Grip, published in 1977, and her third, Children’s Bach, published in 1984—both recently reissued in the United States—are considered classics ...