Sneak Peek: The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate

We’re thrilled to give you an early peek at Martha Southgate’s novel The Taste of Salt, arriving  in bookstores  on September 13th. Read some fantastic pre-pub blurbs below and don’t miss the excerpt at the bottom of the page.

Award-winning novelist Martha Southgate (who, in the words of Julia Glass, “can write fat and hot, then lush and tender, then just plain truthful and burning with heart”) now tells the story of a family pushed to its limits by addiction over the course of two generations. Josie Henderson loves the water and is fulfilled by her position as the only senior-level black scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. In building this impressive life for herself, she has tried to shed the one thing she cannot: her family back in land-locked Cleveland. Her adored brother, Tick, was her childhood ally as they watched their drinking father push away all the love that his wife and children were trying to give him. Now Tick himself has been coming apart and demands to be heard. Weaving four voices into a beautiful tapestry, Southgate charts the lives of the Hendersons from the parents first charmed meeting to Josie’s realization that the ways of the human heart are more complex than anything seen under a microscope.

Advance Praise for The Taste of Salt:
“A haunting novel about the ways we hurt and are hurt by the people we love most in the world, and about how, despite that, we find solace in their love.”—Ayelet Waldman, author of Red Hook Road

“A poignant exploration of the legacies our families leave us and the dangers of trying to deny them.”—Danielle Evans, author of Before you Suffocate Your Own Fool Self

“Open-hearted and open-eyed, Southgate explores how we come together, how we come apart, and how we hold one another, with all our beauties and flaws.”—Stacey D’Ersamo, author of The Sky Below

“Extraordinarily moving and keenly sensitive tour de force that will linger in your mind and heart for a long time.”—James Hannaham, author of God Says No

“Martha Southgate has written a tender, confident, and unfussy novel about a marine biologist who tries to save herself by shutting out the human world. Of course, that never works, and her journey back toward connection gives this novel its charge. This book is a moving eulogy for lost loved ones and even for a lost, loved city, Cleveland. The Taste of Salt had me misting up by the end. For real.”—Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine

“The Taste of Salt is a beautiful and heartbreaking portrait of a modern family.   Employing a chorus of voices and perspectives,  Martha Southgate probes the depths of her troubled characters with clarity and tenderness.”—Dan Chaon,  author of Await Your Reply

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Tags: A Taste of Salt, Martha Southgate