The Engagement, by Chloe Hooper

I was looking forward to reading Chloe Hooper’s second novel.   She burst onto the literary scene with an eerie novel of sex and betrayal, A Child’s Book of True Crime , which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize 2002 and a New York Times Notable Book.   Since then, however, she has become more well-known as a highly regarded author of non-fiction.  She has won a Walkley Award (Australia’s awards for excellence in journalism) and The Tall Man  won the 2009 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction, the 2008 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards, the 2009 ABIA General Non-fiction Book of the Year Award and 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction. (See my review).

Ten years after her first novel comes The Engagement, another book exploring sex and betrayal, set not in Tasmania as A Child’s Book of True Crime was, but…