Product Description

Palm Island may be the most beautiful tropical island in Australia, but its name is synonymous with violence. It is home to one of the country's largest Aboriginal communities, descendants of people torn from their own lands, their clans and their families in the era of the Stolen Generation. In 2004 Cameron Doomadgee, a 36-year-old resident of the island, was arrested for swearing at a white police officer and locked in the cells. Within forty-five minutes he was dead. The police claimed he'd tripped on a step, but the Government pathologist later said that his injuries were consistent with a car or plane crash. The community rioted and burnt down the police station. The main suspect was Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley, a tall, handsome, charismatic cop with long experience in Aboriginal communities and decorations for his work.Chloe Hooper's "The Tall Man: Life and Death on Palm Island" recounts this story with the pace of a thriller. Following Hurley's trail to some of the wildest and most remote parts of Australia, she explores Aboriginal myths and history and uncovers buried secrets of white mischief. Atmospheric, gritty and original, "The Tall Man" is an absorbing and moving account of the lives of people of Palm Island, of the Doomadgee family as they struggle to understand what happened to their brother, and of the complex, enigmatic figure, Hurley. Hooper combines reportage with a novelist's command of character to tell a story that takes readers not only inside the courtroom and the notorious Queensland police force, but into Australia's indigenous communities - and to the heart of a struggle for power, revenge and justice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22445 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Review
`a powerful non-fiction novel in the tradition of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.' --Sunday Telegraph

Review
`Engrossing...this is a brilliant vignette in which one appalling incident illuminates a saga of social breakdown.'

Review
'This meticulous, compelling portrayal of the dark side of Australian life deserves the widest possible audience.'

Customer Reviews

The Tall Man, review
I thought it was a wonderful book.
Now, i dont wan't to spoil the book for you so i'm not going to say much. However, there is certainly a paradox about justice within the ending...

The seller had kept this book in fantastic condition and had it delivered very fast.
Reliable and simple, many thanks!

Alban.

Structure and poor writing let this story down...
This journalistic book tells the emotional and fascinating story of a death in custody of an Aboriginal man, on a hellish island off the Australian coast. The facts and the speculation surrounding the case are engaging; the effect on Australian politics profound.

Unfortunately, for me this book was marred by poor writing/editing. The narrative is fractured, leaping around from place to place, and time to time. There is no need for this. The book could easily be re-organised to provide coherence and a build up of tension towards the final trial and verdict. The editor should have stepped in and reworked the structure - much of the drama is lost, and threads of argument too awkward to follow, or to have the necessary impact.

Likewise, Hooper cannot seem to decide whether she is writing a personal account, or an impersonal one. While the book is littered with personal experiences and observations, it is also full of statements of fact. The result is messy; it is not personal enough to be emotive and capable of inducing empathy. However, it is not factual enough to let the story speak for itself.

Ultimately, the sheer wretchedness of the circumstances, and the tragedy the book tells, are enough to be thought-provoking and moving. But better writing, better editing, more coherence and a more suitable structure, would have made so much more of this heart-rending story.