Salt and Skin

'Brilliant. With such a good ending, it had me slapping the back cover closed with utmost satisfaction and respect. Hard recommend.'Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites and Devotion 'Until recently, there had been four of them. Unspeaking, the three remaining Managans lugged their bags into Ewan's waiting car. Luda and her children were not staying in the ghost house on Seannay that first night. The window broken in the storm must first be fixed. Living on the islands means being in constant conversation with the wind; negotiating where it will and will not go. The Managans do not know this yet. It is a lesson they will begin to learn a week later, watching the cliff collapse into the sea.' Luda, a photographer, and her two teenagers arrive in the Scottish Northern Isles to make a new life. Everywhere the past shimmers to the surface; the shifting landscapes and wild weather dominates; the line between reality and the uncanny seems thin here. The teenagers forge connections, making friends of neighbours, discovering both longing and dangerous compulsions. But their mother - fallible, obsessive, distracted - comes up hard against suspicion. The persecution and violence that drove the island's historic witch trials still simmers today, in isolated homes and church buildings, and where folklore and fact intertwine. A compelling and magically immersive novel about a family on the edge and a community ensnared by history, that gathers to an unforgettable ending. 'An astonishingly rich and intricate exploration of loss, love, ambition and redemption ... A thrilling read.' Marie Claire

Eliza Henry-Jones lives on a flower farm on Wurundjeri land in the Yarra Valley of Victoria, Australia. She is the author of In the Quiet (2015), Ache (2017) and the young adult novels P is for Pearl (2018) and How to Grow a Family Tree (2020). Her novels have been listed for awards including the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, QLD Literary Awards, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Indie Awards, ABIA Awards and CBCA Awards. Eliza has received residencies at Varuna, the National Writers' House (NSW) the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre (WA), and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig in Ireland (courtesy of Varuna). Her short fiction, nonfiction and features have been widely published across magazines, newspapers and journals. Eliza has qualifications in psychology; alcohol and other drugs; and grief, loss and trauma counselling.