It is 1854, and with the certainty of land behind her, Sarah flees her home for the uncertainties of life in the new colony. In steerage, she joins the other unmarried women, where the horrors of their close confinement bring an unraveling of secrets no one can control. Sarah endures, longing for her mother's forgiveness and the sweetness of her cousin Richard's breath. As she draws closer to her new land, she becomes increasingly haunted by her own tale and the letter home she cannot write. Moving between the voyage in ...
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It is 1854, and with the certainty of land behind her, Sarah flees her home for the uncertainties of life in the new colony. In steerage, she joins the other unmarried women, where the horrors of their close confinement bring an unraveling of secrets no one can control. Sarah endures, longing for her mother's forgiveness and the sweetness of her cousin Richard's breath. As she draws closer to her new land, she becomes increasingly haunted by her own tale and the letter home she cannot write. Moving between the voyage in which pigs run through flooded living quarters to the hallucinatory visions induced by heat and doldrums, Christine Balint's astonishing debut novel brings us close to a time when the world was still a place to be discovered. Shortlisted for the Vogel Literary Award. "Dazzling.... A meticulous history and a beautifully crafted fiction.... Compelling reading."-Brisbane Courier Mail
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Add this copy of The Salt Letters to cart. $2.48, like new condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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Good. Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.
Add this copy of The Salt Letters to cart. $5.50, good condition, Sold by Salt & Pepper rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Murfreesboro, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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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.
