Quotes from Chloe Hooper

I'm like an old record--Be my guest is the signature song; Please go away, always on side B.

Death entered the medical miracle of the twentieth century already camouflaged. But in scientifically advanced nations, it now takes place in hospitals or nursing homes, out of view, a medical failure rather than a natural process. And, to 'protect' our children, rarely does it make an appearance within their beautifully illustrated picture books.

one time she heard a policeman giving a belting to teenagers who'd been bullying the boy. Part of her wished someone would do that for her son. When Brendan reached high school age he attended Morwell Technical College, a fifteen-

radio shock jocks were soon telling an audience eager to believe in their own righteousness and sound mental health that the impairment was fake.

Grief has pulled her out further than she thought she could go. To the edge of what it is possible to bear, of what's habitable, and then further again.

You know that grief cannot be avoided. And that when it finds a person, they might look the same but they're changed: their missing person has altered the atmosphere in the house, the classroom, the playground; on birthdays and holidays; amongst friends and with the parent who survives.