Chloe Hooper is the final Summer Read author blogging from 25 – 28 February.
Chloe Hooper won a Walkley Award for her writing on the inquest into the death of Cameron Doomadgee, published in The Monthly and internationally. Her first novel A Child’s Book of True Crime was critically acclaimed around the world.
Her book Tall Man is one of the books on the Summer Read shortlist.
Tall Man tells the story of an Aboriginal man who dies in a watch-house cell, forty minutes after being arrested for swearing at a policeman. The coroner’s report states he died from a fall, sparking community outrage and the locals burning down the police station. The Tall Man tells the true story that epitomised Aboriginal Australia’s haunting racial plight.
As part of the free Summer Read events across Victoria, Chloe will be appearing at:
Heaths Road Library, Cnr Heaths Street and Derrimut Road Hoppers Crossing on Tuesday 24 February 2009, 7.00 – 9.00 pm
For more information phone Heaths Road Library 9748 9333 or book online at http://summerread31.eventbrite.com
Northcote Library, 32-38 Separation Street Northcote on Thursday 26 February 2009, 6.30 – 7.30 pm
For more information phone Northcote Library1300 655 355 or book online at http://summerread33.eventbrite.com
What Chloe says about summer reading
“I remember lying on the beach in the summer holidays reading my school books for English; sand becoming ingrained in the books’ spines; trying to shade the pages so the white glare didn’t scald my eyes. Hours went by like this. I wouldn’t move until the books themselves seemed sunburnt. That’s how I first read Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar: her semi-autobiographical account of a young American girl’s psychiatric breakdown. I was riveted—and too young to realise there were probably people breaking down all over the beach….Of course, what we read becomes ingrained in us. And now whenever I’m swimming in the sea, my pulse-thumping, I always think of Plath’s brilliant line: I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”
