An extraordinarily powerful and personal meditation on race, culture, and identity.
As an Aboriginal Australian, Stan Grant has had to contend with his country’s racist legacy all his life. Born into adversity, he found an escape route through education and the writing of James Baldwin, going on to become one of Australia’s leading journalists.
As a correspondent for CNN, he travelled the world, covering conflicts everywhere, from Baghdad to North Korea. Struck by how the human spirit can endure in the face of repression, he found the experiences of individuals he met spoke to him of the undying call of family and homeland. In the stories of other dispossessed peoples, he saw that of his own.
In Talking To My Country, Grant responds to the ongoing racism that he sees around him. He writes with passion and striking candour of the anger, shame, and hardship of being an indigenous man. In frank, mesmerising prose, Grant argues that the effects of colonialism and oppression are everyday realities that still shape our world, and that we should never grow complacent in the fight to overcome them.
‘Grant will be an important voice in shaping this nation.’
The Saturday Paper
‘Grant is a natural storyteller … at his best when recounting his experiences and observations of Indigenous Australian life with devastating simplicity and acuity. This highly readable book … has the potential to spark empathy and generate important discussion, and deserves to be read widely.’
Bookseller + Publisher
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‘Searingly honest, this is a compelling and harrowing book in which Stan Grant adds his strong voice to the clamour for social justice and indigenous rights.’
New Internationalist
‘Stan Grant is an extraordinary man. He will be Australia’s first aboriginal prime minister.’
Peter Carey
‘It is a story so essential and salutary to this place that it should be given out free at the ballot box.’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘An urgent and flowing narrative in a book that should be on the required reading list in every school.’
The Australian
