The Salt LettersIt 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 |
Contents
Section 1 | 7 |
Section 2 | 11 |
Section 3 | 47 |
Section 4 | 93 |
Section 5 | 139 |
Section 6 | 169 |
Section 7 | 189 |
Section 8 | |
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon albatross Annie arms asked Bay of Biscay began beneath berth Beth Birkenhead blankets boards body cabin passengers Canary Islands captain Charlotte Charlotte's chest climbed close colour creatures dance darkness deck dining table Doctor Carpenter Eliza eyes face Father fear feel feet felt fingers fish float Florrie girls Grandmother Fryer Greenwood hair hand hatchway stairs head hear heard Hollyworth horse horse latitudes imagine laughed looked Lydia Matron mattress Melbourne University Press mess moisture monkey poop morning Mother move night nightdress ocean overboard peered Polly pulled realised Richard rising damp rocks rope sailors salt Sarah says screaming sea shanties ship shouted Shropshire singing skin sleep smell smiled someone stared steerage stories swallowed tell thin tiny told trunk Uncle Frederick unmarried women Van Diemen's Land vessel voice voyage walk watch water closet waves whispered wind wonder