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Book Reviews
'The book is everything it should be: a sad, beautiful, frightening account of one man's pointless death, interwoven with the brutal history of Palm Island (which grew up as a penal settlement for "disruptive" Aboriginal people) and a golden thread of Aboriginal mythology. Every sentence is weighed, considered, even, restrained. Every character is explored for their contradictions, every situation observed for its nuances, every easy judgement 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.' Good Weekend Magazine, Sydney Morning Herald & The Age
'Her spare but polished narrative, through understatement and detail, gathers force like a river after rain. She persuades subtly where strident partisanship would weary a reader. Too clever to shout, she drops hints, nudging her "jury" as adroitly as any barrister.' The Sunday Age
'The Tall Man follows in the tradition of classic non-fiction novels like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood as Hooper brings lyrical power to actual events. The result is a real life Heart of Darkness in the Australian badlands.' Time Out Sydney
'Riveting' Courier Mail
'The book is everything it should be: a sad, beautiful, frightening account of one man's pointless death, interwoven with the brutal history of Palm Island and a golden thread of Aboriginal mythology. Every sentence is weighed, considered, even, restrained. Every character is explored for their contradictions, every situation observed for its nuances, every easy judgement 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 ... It is The Tall Man's triumph that Hooper finds the common humanity in the accused and the accuser, the police officer and the street drinker, the living and the dead. It's Australia's good fortune that Boe found Hooper to shadow him.' Mark Dapin, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald
'She constructs in painful detail how the lives of two 34-year-old Australian men collided, with tragic results ... Her spare but polished narrative, through understatement and detail, gathers force like a river after rain ... It's a rich vein for a writer and few could mine it better. A rising star.' Andrew Rule, Sunday Age
'Observant, acute and compassionate ... It would have been easy for Hooper to make The Tall Man a simple story of apparent injustice. Always, however, she favours nuance over cliché, context over judgement ... While absorbed in the back and white of guilt or innocence, Hooper is also drawn to the grey.' Time Australia
'[Hooper's] ambition - and achievement - is breathtaking.' Morag Fraser, Age
'The north has chosen to reveal itself to Chloe Hooper' Paul Toohey, Weekend Australian
'Hooper tells this story masterfully, and her perfect pacing keeps the pages turning.' Sunday Telegraph
'A compelling human story.' Sydney Morning Herald
'With a fine-tuned curiosity, a probing capacity to interpret people and their motives and an at times forensic yet lyrical attention to detail, Hooper has written a confronting and perplexing tale.' Adelaide Advertiser
'The book is replete with achingly beautiful, starkly illuminating prose.' The Big Issue