Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas
A Bustle, LitHub, Debutiful, and NYLON Most Anticipated Book of 2023
A Goodreads Buzziest Book of the New Year
“A love affair so richly and attentively imagined it carries the grace and gravity of memory itself.” —Leslie Jamison
- Sale Date
- ISBN
- 9781953534729
- Page Count
- 272
- Language
- English
- Imprint
- Tin House
Meet the Author
Madelaine Lucas
A Bustle, LitHub, Debutiful, and NYLON Most Anticipated Book of 2023
A Goodreads Buzziest Book of the New Year
“A love affair so richly and attentively imagined it carries the grace and gravity of memory itself.” —Leslie Jamison
It’s hard to remember now that I was once that girl, lying in the sand in my red swimsuit and swimming late into the day. Sharkbait, he called me.
It’s in the water where she first sees him: a local man almost twenty years her senior. Adrift in the summer after finishing college, a young woman is on holiday with her mother in an isolated Australian coastal town. Finding herself pulled to Jude, the man in the water, she begins losing herself in the simple, seductive rhythms of his everyday life.
As their relationship deepens, life at Sailors Beach offers her the stability she has been craving as the daughter of two drifters—a loving but impulsive mother and an itinerant father. But the arrival of Maeve, a friend from Jude’s past, threatens to rock their fragile, newfound intimacy. And when she witnesses something she doesn’t fully understand, she finds herself questioning everything—about Jude, about herself, about the life she has and the one she wants.
A magnetic and unforgettable story of desire and its complexities, and a powerful reckoning with memory, loss, and longing, Madelaine Lucas’s debut novel, Thirst for Salt, reveals with stunning, sensual immediacy the way the past can hold us in its thrall, shaping who we are and what we love.
A Goodreads Buzziest Book of the New Year
“A love affair so richly and attentively imagined it carries the grace and gravity of memory itself.” —Leslie Jamison
It’s hard to remember now that I was once that girl, lying in the sand in my red swimsuit and swimming late into the day. Sharkbait, he called me.
It’s in the water where she first sees him: a local man almost twenty years her senior. Adrift in the summer after finishing college, a young woman is on holiday with her mother in an isolated Australian coastal town. Finding herself pulled to Jude, the man in the water, she begins losing herself in the simple, seductive rhythms of his everyday life.
As their relationship deepens, life at Sailors Beach offers her the stability she has been craving as the daughter of two drifters—a loving but impulsive mother and an itinerant father. But the arrival of Maeve, a friend from Jude’s past, threatens to rock their fragile, newfound intimacy. And when she witnesses something she doesn’t fully understand, she finds herself questioning everything—about Jude, about herself, about the life she has and the one she wants.
A magnetic and unforgettable story of desire and its complexities, and a powerful reckoning with memory, loss, and longing, Madelaine Lucas’s debut novel, Thirst for Salt, reveals with stunning, sensual immediacy the way the past can hold us in its thrall, shaping who we are and what we love.
Praise for Thirst for Salt
-
“Lush and gorgeous. . . . a delicious read, beautifully written and emotionally satisfying.”
The New York Times Book Review -
“Sensuous and bittersweet. . . . It offers an honest, often beautiful reminder of the overwhelming emotions that all of us have felt but spend most of our daily lives trying to subdue.”
The Wall Street Journal -
“Lucas’ meditation on relationships is masterful. . . . [her] portrayal of love and desire exerts a wonderful pull.”
Kirkus Reviews
About the Imprint
Where the literary canon of tomorrow is born. Critically acclaimed titles that challenge, illuminate, and linger. Discover award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from emerging voices you’ll say you found first.
