Chloe Hooper hit the big time back in 2002 with her debut novel A Child's Book of True Crime, which was shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Orange Prize. Now she returns with The Tall Man, a non-fiction account of the death of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island in Queensland. In "The Courier-Mail" she is interviewed by Benjamin Law.
Hooper was on Palm Island at the invitation of Andrew Boe, the lawyer who flew out to represent the Palm Island community pro bono. She'd given Boe her word that if she were invited in by the community, she would stick with the story. "I didn't know it would take so long, (but) I got hooked," she says. "What made me immediately so angry was that such a low price was put on Cameron Doomadgee's life. You can't help thinking: 'What if this were my family?'"And "The Age" has published an extract from the new book.
