The Spare Room

The narrator, Helen, agrees to put up her friend Nicola in her spare room for a 3-week period. Nicola has late stage cancer and is in Melbourne for a course of alternative treatment. Helen, who loves her friend, and tries to take care of her as best she can, soon finds herself out of her depth and at the edge of her sanity. She has grave misgivings about the Institute to which she accompanies Nicola for her sessions, Helen thinks they are frauds. But she cannot find a way through to Nicola who is in denial about her condition and inclined to believe in the treatment’s promise despite its terrible toll on her body. This is a tale of a complicated friendship and the challenges of care givers, perfectly rendered.