Patti Miller in conversation on True Friends

Join author Patti Miller in conversation with Charlotte Wood as they discuss Patti’s latest release True Friends, a revealing and powerful memoir about the making and unmaking of friendships.

Friendships are among the most important relationships in our lives, often outlasting love affairs and marriages; even, at times, family connections. The loss of a friend can be one of life’s most disturbing events, yet these ‘friend break-ups’ are little acknowledged in our culture.

In True Friends, acclaimed author Patti Miller recounts the joyful making and then painful ending of a long, close friendship. It is a deep and influential relationship in her life, but when it inexplicably unravels, Patti is left searching for answers. As she tries to make sense of this ending, Patti considers other important friendships throughout her life, questioning who we are drawn to, what we really know of each other and why some friendships endure while others end.

Evocative and intimate, this engaging book brings together the personal and the universal and reminds us of the centrality of friendships in our lives.

This event is free but registration is essential.

State Library of NSW
Dixson Room, Ground Floor
Mitchell Building
SYDNEY NSW 2000

Patti Miller was raised on Wiradjuri land in central western NSW and now lives in Sydney. She is the author of Writing Your Life, The Last One Who Remembers, Child, Whatever the Gods Do, The Memoir Book, the award-winning The Mind of a Thief, Ransacking Paris, Writing True Stories and The Joy of High Places. In 1991 she founded Life Stories Workshop and since then has offered non-fiction and fiction classes, focusing on autobiographical writing around Australia and in Fiji, Bali, London and Paris.

Charlotte Wood is the author of six novels and three books of non-fiction. Her latest book is The Luminous Solution, an exploration of creativity and the inner life. Her last novel was the international bestseller The Weekend. It was shortlisted for several awards including the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, both of which she won, among others, for her previous novel The Natural Way of Things in 2016. That title was recently featured in the 2021 ABC Television series The Books That Made Us. In 2019 Charlotte was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and named one of the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence. Her features and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Literary Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Saturday Paper among other publications.