Synopses & Reviews
andlt;bandgt;In 2004 on Palm Island,andlt;/bandgt; an Aboriginal settlement in the "Deep North" of Australia, a thirty-six-year-old man named Cameron Doomadgee was arrested for swearing at a white police officer. Forty minutes later he was dead in the jailhouse. The police claimed he'd tripped on a step, but his liver was ruptured. The main suspect was Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley, a charismatic cop with long experience in Aboriginal communities and decorations for his work. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; Chloe Hooper was asked to write about the case by the pro bono lawyer who represented Cameron Doomadgee's family. He told her it would take a couple of weeks. She spent three years following Hurley's trail to some of the wildest and most remote parts of Australia, exploring Aboriginal myths and history and the roots of brutal chaos in the Palm Island community. Her stunning account goes to the heart of a struggle for power, revenge, and justice. Told in luminous detail, Tall Man is as urgent as andlt;iandgt;Bury My Heart at Wounded Kneeandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;The Executioner's Song.andlt;/iandgt; It is the story of two worlds clashing -- and a haunting moral puzzle that no reader will forget.
Review
"Chloe Hooper's masterful book of reportage is a kind of moral thriller about power, wretchedness, and violence." -- PHILIP ROTH
Review
"It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this book." -- PETER CAREY, AUTHOR OF andlt;iandgt;HIS ILLEGAL SELF AND THEFT: A LOVE STORYandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Chloe Hooper illuminates the brutal and tragic legacy of racism in northern Australia with first-rate reporting and incandescent prose. andlt;iandgt;Tall Manandlt;/iandgt; should become a classic of literary nonfiction." -- MARYANNE VOLLERS, AUTHOR OF andlt;iandgt;GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPIandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Follows in the tradition of classic nonfiction novels like Truman Capote's andlt;iandgt;In Cold Bloodandlt;/iandgt; as Hooper brings lyrical power to actual events. The result is a real-life andlt;iandgt;Heart of Darknessandlt;/iandgt; in the Australian badlands." andlt;iandgt;-- TIME OUT SYDNEYandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Every sentence is weighed, considered, even, restrained. Every character is explored for their contradictions, every situation observed for its nuances, every easy judgment suspended. Hooper has a feeling for the intimacy of violence, the fragility of the flesh, the tawdry inevitability of corruption, the fathomless depth of loss." andlt;iandgt;-- THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALDandlt;/iandgt;
Synopsis
Hooper's brilliant and searing account of the death of Cameron Doomadgee is written with the pace of a thriller. "Tall Man" tells the story of what happened to one man in an Aboriginal community and provides insight into a world few have ever seen.
About the Author
andlt;Bandgt;Chloe Hooper andlt;/Bandgt;was born in Melbourne in 1973.andnbsp;She was educated at the University of Melbourne and as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, New York. Her first novel, andlt;iandgt;A Childand#8217;s Book of True Crime,andlt;/iandgt; was a andlt;iandgt;New York Timesandlt;/iandgt; Notable Book and short-listed for the Orange Prize.andnbsp;She lives inandnbsp;Australia.andnbsp;