The Edge of Memory

Patrick Nunn, Bloomsbury Sigma, $29.99

ACROSS THE 65,000 years Aboriginals have lived in Australia, they’ve maintained an oral tradition that records and passes down laws, stories, practical information, and memories of real environmental events such as volcanic eruptions and floods. This book traces the story of how scientists discovered the spoken word can be just as accurate as the climatic data, and how, in this country and others, people have finally started listening.