Description
1836. On the edge of empire, a woman arrives to claim her past. And her future.
Clarissa FitzRoy, a spirited woman of mixed heritage, has crossed oceans to confront Colonel William Light, the Surveyor-General of South Australia. Bound by a shared history of dispossession by the British East India Company and haunted by secrets, Clarissa and Light must grapple with truths neither is prepared to face.
Set against the stark beauty of the South Australian coast, Salt Upon the Water is a powerful story of love, identity, and resistance. As Clarissa seeks connection with her Asian family and Light is forced to confront his complicity in colonial violence, both are caught in a tide of prejudice, race, and power that will shape the course of their lives.
Sweeping from the pleasure gardens of London to the canals of Venice, the streets of Calcutta to the island of Penang, Lyn Dickens' novel blends magical realism with historical depth, offering a luminous reimagining of Australia's past.
A groundbreaking, poetic debut: a story of reckoning, resilience, and the courage to reclaim one's voice.
Endorsements
'Resonant and lyrical, Salt Upon the Water celebrates the emergence of a powerful new voice in Australian literature.' — Hossein Asgari
'Written in lyrical, sensual and teasing tones, Salt Upon the Water is the tale of an indomitable woman caught in the littoral space between love and race, class and gender ... Dickens has a fine eye for detail and disturbance, skilfully weaving her intriguing narrative between history and romance.' — Brian Castro
'An epic love story and an account of betrayals large and small, it offers a sobering vision of the ways the violence of the colonial encounter reverberated through so many lives, and in such startlingly different ways.' — Patrick Flanery
'Lyn Dickens is a distinctive and poetic voice. A fragrant and fierce act of narrative reclamation.' — Anna Goldsworthy