Style and Substance
The story behind The Salt Letters is a familliar one: a fifteen year old girl in Victorian England shames her family (in the usual way) and is booked passage on a ship headed for New South Wales, where it is hoped she will find a husband. But both the shape of the novel and Balint's exquisite narration are what make this book unique. Each chapter begins with Sara's attempt to write a letter home to her mother--yet each letter breaks off in the middle of the first sentence. The chapters continue with detailed descriptions of life in the single women's quarters. In both lyrical prose and harsh realism, Balint pulls the reader into the hold and surrounds us with the sights, sounds, and smells of Sara's experience. And over it all is the overwhelming sadness of the young women whose lives will be changed forever.
