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A review by mondyboy
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper
5.0
The tenth anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires will be in two months. I remember my wife and I melting in our flat in Caulfield North as the temperature soared to 47 degrees. In Melbourne it was the hottest day on record for seventy years, preceded by days of sweltering blazing weather. Coupled with drought conditions and the State was already on high alert. Even so, I’m not sure anyone could imagine how bad it was going to be.
Chloe Hooper’s The Arsonist focuses on one of the outbreaks in the Latrobe Valley (the region where the bulk of Victoria’s electricity is generated). As the title suggests the cause of the fire, that started in the small town of Churchill, was not of natural causes. Hooper’s account details the arson investigation and the arrest and conviction of Brendan Sokaluk. She does so, though, by getting into the minds of those involved - those who survived the fires (and their gut-wrenching experiences), the detectives and experts who investigated the crime, the lawyers that defended Brendan.
Brendan, for the most part, is closed to us and Hooper. I won’t explain why, it’s the driving force of this incredible book that at times reads like a thriller, but for the most part is this emotionally raw exploration into a tragedy that’s left an indelible mark on Victoria. Hooper, who worked on The Arsonist for five years, clearly has a strong bond with the people she interviewed, and as such she respects each and every one of them. These are people striving to find justice, to find answers, to find some sort of resolution amongst the ashes.
Read this book.
Chloe Hooper’s The Arsonist focuses on one of the outbreaks in the Latrobe Valley (the region where the bulk of Victoria’s electricity is generated). As the title suggests the cause of the fire, that started in the small town of Churchill, was not of natural causes. Hooper’s account details the arson investigation and the arrest and conviction of Brendan Sokaluk. She does so, though, by getting into the minds of those involved - those who survived the fires (and their gut-wrenching experiences), the detectives and experts who investigated the crime, the lawyers that defended Brendan.
Brendan, for the most part, is closed to us and Hooper. I won’t explain why, it’s the driving force of this incredible book that at times reads like a thriller, but for the most part is this emotionally raw exploration into a tragedy that’s left an indelible mark on Victoria. Hooper, who worked on The Arsonist for five years, clearly has a strong bond with the people she interviewed, and as such she respects each and every one of them. These are people striving to find justice, to find answers, to find some sort of resolution amongst the ashes.
Read this book.