Apparently indefatigable in his early seventies, he reminds us of the enduring power of book and speech in the digital age. And he has responded generously to the call, touring the continent tirelessly these past few years, accepting invitations to speak to audiences of all kinds in both city and bush. Whatever Bruce Pascoe is saying, Australians clearly want to hear it now. At the end of the speech the crowd erupted in an ovation for several minutes. Earlier this year I was in a university lecture hall packed with hundreds of young people who had come out on a dark winter night to listen to the author of Dark Emu, and they were enthralled.

I’ve sat with Bruce on a stage and found myself captivated by his careful, humble manner of speaking and gruff bush charm he has a natural charisma and a mischievous wit. Pascoe is a writer but also a performer, an orator, a dedicated storyteller in the old style. We meet - or rediscover - the pre– Dark Emu Pascoe, and we’re reminded that this powerful voice itself has a history.

One of the pleasures of Salt is that it weaves his earlier fiction writing together with his now-celebrated nonfiction. When Dark Emu was published in 2014, Bruce became a household name and many readers encountered him for the first time. I’ve been a follower of his work since the early 1980s, when I read his fiction and subscribed to the literary magazine he edited and published with Lyn Harwood, Australian Short Stories. To some, Dark Emu seemed to come out of nowhere, but Pascoe’s latest book, Salt: Selected Stories and Essays, helps us to see how it grew from the author’s life experience and earlier storytelling. I’m grateful for a book that has so enlivened the engagement of Australians with their country’s history. They did not previously understand the sophistication of Aboriginal land management they had not previously felt the full injustice of European conquest and dispossession. Many readers speak of it with a sense of astonishment and revelation they often tell me that Pascoe’s book completely changed their understanding of Australian history.

In recent years, as a historian of Australia, I’ve found that the book people most wanted to talk to me about is Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu.

Bruce pascoe author