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The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire
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On the scorching February day in 2009 that became known as Black Saturday, a man lit two fires in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. In the Valley, where the rates of crime were the highest in the state, more than thirty people were known to police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man th
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Paperback, 258 pages
Published
October 15th 2018
by Viking Australia
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Start your review of The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire

This is the second book that I’ve read of late about the horrific fires that swept through a country town in Victoria in 2009 known as Black Saturday. The first book I read was a fiction novel whereas this one The Arsonist is a non fiction.
The Arsonist deals more with the investigation on how the fires started and who lit them. As the detectives gather information they trust they are getting closer to who is responsible and it’s only a matter of time before they catch the fire bug. The investig ...more
The Arsonist deals more with the investigation on how the fires started and who lit them. As the detectives gather information they trust they are getting closer to who is responsible and it’s only a matter of time before they catch the fire bug. The investig ...more

This is an incredibly readable, upsetting and sometimes insightful book about one of the fires from Victoria's black saturday and the subsequent investigation and prosecution of the man who lit it. Hooper is a smart and compelling writer - I smashed through this in a day, almost unable to stop myself - but I was left feeling like it was a bit heavy on drama and a bit light on illumination.
Partly this comes from the story she's chosen - the titular arsonist is vague, potentially intellectually di ...more
Partly this comes from the story she's chosen - the titular arsonist is vague, potentially intellectually di ...more

This book has just been nominated to the Australian Stella Prize longlist for 2019. It deals with some of the events of the "Black Saturday" Victorian bushfires of February 2009. In this investigation Hooper narrows her focus to the Churchill fires and the search for and arrest of the arsonist. While the book starts with plenty of bushfire science and follows arson squad investigators to find the perpetrator it quickly becomes an interesting portrait of how the system deals with suspects that ar
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Fire in Australia is like a looming omnipresence always lurking in the distance ready to strike at any time. Even though fires are so common place in Australia it was still a major shock to the country when two fires were deliberately lit on the 7th of February 2009 in the State of Victoria causing major devastation.
This book chronicles the timeline from the detectives investigation to catching the culprit and then following the lawyers who had to defend such an openly hated villain all the way ...more
This book chronicles the timeline from the detectives investigation to catching the culprit and then following the lawyers who had to defend such an openly hated villain all the way ...more

This is an outstanding example of narrative non-fiction, and Australia writing. Hooper is really a master of storytelling; the story of the Black Saturday fires is a familiar one, but Hooper makes this story new, something more than a journalistic retelling. There were many layers to this book, which is what I enjoyed about it the most. On the surface, it tells the story of the Black Saturday fires, the investigation, arrest, and trial of the accused. But in the end I felt this book was about bi
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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 ...more
Chloe Hooper’s The Arsonist focuses on one of the outbreaks in ...more

“...I’ve nearly finished writing this book, which came in fits and starts, after persuading people to speak, and learning of material that was hard to access, then too hard to deal with. I have spent years trying to understand this man and what he did, my own motivation sometimes as indecipherable as his. And, I wondered, what if, having asked the police and lawyers dozens of questions, then more questions, trying to get tiny details right, I essentially ended up with little more than a series o
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3.5 stars!
Not going to lie, reading The Arsonist was quite disturbing. Real-life events set in Victoria, Australia about a range of lethal fires set by arsonists with residents dying and millions of dollars worth of damage. This book focuses on the Black Saturday fires, the man taken to trial for arson and the aftermath of a small community turned upside down. The pacing was quite slow and I was scared for most of it. This isn't an easy read so be warned! ...more
Not going to lie, reading The Arsonist was quite disturbing. Real-life events set in Victoria, Australia about a range of lethal fires set by arsonists with residents dying and millions of dollars worth of damage. This book focuses on the Black Saturday fires, the man taken to trial for arson and the aftermath of a small community turned upside down. The pacing was quite slow and I was scared for most of it. This isn't an easy read so be warned! ...more

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires across Victoria in February 2009. 173 people died in as many as 400 fires ; most of whom died due to ageing power infrastructure.
Chloe Hooper writes this non fiction account of the Central Gippsland fires where Brendan Sokaluk was convicted of 10 counts of arson causing death.
Mostly this book reads like a long newspaper article. Despite the title of this book, there was much more focus on the fires, and some personal stories of the horrendo ...more
Chloe Hooper writes this non fiction account of the Central Gippsland fires where Brendan Sokaluk was convicted of 10 counts of arson causing death.
Mostly this book reads like a long newspaper article. Despite the title of this book, there was much more focus on the fires, and some personal stories of the horrendo ...more

I'm not sure it was a good idea to read this book in the middle of yet another heat wave in the middle of the hottest, driest summer on record and on a day where the temperatures will be in the mid 40s.
Nonetheless this was a scary book. Scary on the level of uncontrollable violence unleashed by bushfires. Scary on how these fires can start. Scary on the complexity of people who are arsonists.
This is a different book to Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee made more complex due to the mental state of ...more
Nonetheless this was a scary book. Scary on the level of uncontrollable violence unleashed by bushfires. Scary on how these fires can start. Scary on the complexity of people who are arsonists.
This is a different book to Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee made more complex due to the mental state of ...more

The Arsonist seems to ask a series of big questions: What role does society play in disasters? How do structural issues like poverty, unemployment and discrimination contribute to the conditions for violent acts? Does our court system actually facilitate justice? And if so, for all?
It's a very strong piece of journalism, bearing witness to the complexities of the Black Saturday bushfires and their aftermath. Like most good journalism it challenges readers to rethink their assumptions, challenge ...more
It's a very strong piece of journalism, bearing witness to the complexities of the Black Saturday bushfires and their aftermath. Like most good journalism it challenges readers to rethink their assumptions, challenge ...more

One of the most riveting sessions at the recent Word For Word Non Fiction festival in Geelong was Chloe Hooper in conversation with Lisa Waller from Deakin.
Chloe Hooper is the author of two novels, A Child’s Book of True Crime (2002) and The Engagement (2012, see my review) but I think it’s safe to say she is best-known for her incisive non-fiction. The Tall Man, Death and Life on Palm Island (2008) (see my review) won a swag of awards, and I won’t be surprised if The Arsonist does the same. It ...more
Chloe Hooper is the author of two novels, A Child’s Book of True Crime (2002) and The Engagement (2012, see my review) but I think it’s safe to say she is best-known for her incisive non-fiction. The Tall Man, Death and Life on Palm Island (2008) (see my review) won a swag of awards, and I won’t be surprised if The Arsonist does the same. It ...more

A compulsively readable retracing of the conditions - in the Latrobe Valley, and in the life of the convicted arsonist - which caused the devastating conflagration in Churchill, Victoria that burnt out an estimated 81,000 acres, and brought death to local residents and wildlife, and destruction to cherished homes and infrastructure.
Although the arsonist's mind is, in the end, unknowable, the individual stories of Black Saturday are the most affecting.
At page 221: "[The prosecutor] went on readi ...more
Although the arsonist's mind is, in the end, unknowable, the individual stories of Black Saturday are the most affecting.
At page 221: "[The prosecutor] went on readi ...more

4.5 stars. I've been waiting to have Black Saturday splayed before me and this is very, very good. But The Tall Man was exceptional. Difficult to judge an author against themselves! Well worth the read.
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Bushfires are practically synonymous with Summer in Australia, and there have been several severe and deadly conflagrations since its settlement including the recent large scale fire of 2019/2020. Of these blazes however, Black Saturday has the dubious distinction of claiming the most lives in recorded history.
On Saturday 7th February 2009, as temperatures soared to the mid 40’s, there were as many as four hundred separate fires burning in Victoria. By the time they were extinguished 450,000 ha ...more
On Saturday 7th February 2009, as temperatures soared to the mid 40’s, there were as many as four hundred separate fires burning in Victoria. By the time they were extinguished 450,000 ha ...more

Nope, not for me. I found it quite boring, despite the topic.

I cried a lot reading this. An immensely nuanced true crime account of the Black Friday fires in Victoria, that captures the horror of a fire beyond human control, the way society ostracises those who are different, and the unrelenting grief of those who lost so much.
Beyond even the knowledge that there will always be people who deliberately light fires – and that it’s a difficult crime to predict and prevent – what scares me most is that climate change is already creating drier, hotter conditi ...more
Beyond even the knowledge that there will always be people who deliberately light fires – and that it’s a difficult crime to predict and prevent – what scares me most is that climate change is already creating drier, hotter conditi ...more

This is a lyrically rendered lesson in recounting a crime that's plaintive in its pointlessness. Unsatisfying in a way that's deeply authentic, Hooper has spun up a story that offers no easy insights yet is too idiosyncratic to be imagined. Beautifully written, fast flowing, and filled with feeling.
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It's been quite a while since Hooper's very excellent "The Tall Man", so I was keen to dive right into this book.
While she does briefly mention the systems failures that resulted in so many deaths from one of Victoria's 'Black Saturday' fires, this book focuses on the man who was convicted of lighting it. Whether or not he fully grasps what he did and what the repercussions from his actions were is unlikely to ever be clear.
Her story is well paced and gripping, depicting the main characters well ...more
While she does briefly mention the systems failures that resulted in so many deaths from one of Victoria's 'Black Saturday' fires, this book focuses on the man who was convicted of lighting it. Whether or not he fully grasps what he did and what the repercussions from his actions were is unlikely to ever be clear.
Her story is well paced and gripping, depicting the main characters well ...more

This is another non-fiction book that I find too difficult to properly rate or review. Perhaps this one in particular, as the Black Saturday bushfires are burnt into Australia's collective memory. The stories of fire survivors, as well as those lives claimed, are truly horrific but thankfully it isn't a place that Hooper dwells. Instead Hooper tries to provide a holistic view but doesn't quite get there for me. I felt Hooper had a tendency to claim feelings and attribute reasons that I doubted s
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Chloe Hooper has honoured all the people whose lives were lost or impacted by this senseless fire setting. She writes in a dignified and enthralling way never ghoulish, never tasteless, hers is a steady hand on the tiller as she tries to navigate a course to shed light on the reasons why this man did what he did. I had put off reading this thinking it would be too difficult to read but it should be read, by all Australians and perhaps lessons might be learned so loners like Sokaluk get treatment
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Incredibly well put together book about Black Saturday and the subsequent police investigation of the suspected arsonist. Hooper weaves together terrifying first person evidence, royal commission findings and news reports to recreate the experience of the families who lived through the bushfires. Masterful, really. I found the coda irritating but it’s still a 5 star book for me.

4.5*
Why would anyone start a bushfire? In her book, Chloe Hooper attempts to find out what is happening in the mind of the firebug. On Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, 173 people died in the most deadly fires in colonised Australia's history. Hooper provides a detailed account of the subsequent investigation and prosecution of the man who lit the fires. It's a confronting and emotional topic and not an easy read, but Hooper masterfully balances a detailed investigation into the psyche of the ar ...more
Why would anyone start a bushfire? In her book, Chloe Hooper attempts to find out what is happening in the mind of the firebug. On Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, 173 people died in the most deadly fires in colonised Australia's history. Hooper provides a detailed account of the subsequent investigation and prosecution of the man who lit the fires. It's a confronting and emotional topic and not an easy read, but Hooper masterfully balances a detailed investigation into the psyche of the ar ...more

Don’t come to The Arsonist expecting “answers”. It’s not a thrilling police procedural where the bad guy is hunted down by the good guys and gets what’s coming to him. It’s an intimate portrait of a man who was found guilty of a horrendous crime, with many questions left lingering as to how, why, and even whether. Perhaps it’s too soon, perhaps not, but either way I’m grateful to Hooper for her attention and dedication in recounting this story and recording it for posterity.
My full review of The ...more
My full review of The ...more

On February 7, 2009 - a day that would become known as Black Saturday - bushfires burned vast areas of Victoria (my home state). Extreme heat, high winds, low humidity, and severe drought combined to create the worst bushfire conditions in Australia's recorded history (the heat from the fires was equivalent to 500 atomic bombs exploding).
Black Saturday resulted in Australia’s highest ever loss of life from a bush-fire event. Across Victoria, 173 people died; more than one million animals (pets, ...more
Black Saturday resulted in Australia’s highest ever loss of life from a bush-fire event. Across Victoria, 173 people died; more than one million animals (pets, ...more
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Can't wait to read this one. | 2 | 4 | May 06, 2019 08:30PM |
Chloe Hooper is an Australian author. Her first novel, A Child’s Book of True Crime (2002), was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Literature and was a New York Times Notable Book. In 2005, she turned to reportage and the next year won a Walkley Award for her writing on the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island, an Aboriginal community off the north-east coast of Australia. The T
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