The book of salt a novel

An irresistible, scrupulously engineered confection that weaves together history, art, and human naturea veritable feast. Salt the uks foremost independent literary publisher. The book is ostensibly about slavery and its aftermath in postcolonial trinidad. Salt houses is a dazzling debut about four generations of the yacoubs, a palestinian family originally from jaffa. It won the new york public library young lions fiction award, the bard fiction prize, the stonewall book awardbarbara gittings literature award, and the 7th annual asian american literary award. Salt restored my faith in my own ability to become immersed in a book and in the fact that there are still books which can totally entrance, amaze, delight, and humble the reader. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read the salt house. Salt houses is a story of displacement, from a novelist who knows salt houses traces several generations of a displaced palestinian family.

This young adult novel set in the closing days of world war ii is based on a reallife maritime disaster. In her novel, truong uses the famous literary couple gertrude stein and alice b. Readers follow the family over six generations, from 1963 to. Highsmithknown as a suspense writer based on her psychological thriller strangers on a trainused an alias because she did not want to be tagged as a lesbianbook writer, and because of the use of her own life references. Promotional trailer for ruta sepetyss historical novel salt to the sea.

Told from multiple points of view, the novel offers a unique perspective on arab displacement, assimilation and the very notion of home. The price of salt is the story of the love between therese, a budding set designer who works in the toy department of a department store, and carol, an elegant customer who comes into the store one day. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the book of salt. Im tempted to use precisely those adjectives insecure, unstable, unreliable but thoroughly enjoyable to describe the fascinating first novel, the book of. Several years after taking this course, former students write me that this is one of the books that has changed their lives. Dane has been possessed by his diabolical ancestor coronado, a man whos fabulously wealthy, dripping with fame, and the leader of. Toklas, and is supplemented by his memories of his childhood in frenchcolonial vietnam.

The book of salt won the bard fiction prize and the barbara gittings award in literature, and was a finalist for britains guardian first book award in 2003. He is a member of the radius of arab american writers rawi and of american mensa. Salt to the sea, by ruta sepetys the new york times. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions salt of the earth, take it with a grain of salt without appreciating their deeper meaning. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Its a shame its not properly referenced, theres really no way of checking any of the billions of facts presented. It tells the story of four individuals in world war ii who make their way to the illfated mv wilhelm gustloff. The time period is the 1920s and 1930s and focuses on binh, a young, gay vietnamese cook living in frenchcolonized vietnam who must flee saigon. Also in 2014, salt published the kirsty logan s debut, the rental heart and other fairytales. Monique truongs first novel, the book of salt, is a remarkably inventive fictional account of a vietnamese cook whom truong appropriated from several pages of the celebrated expatriate american. The novel went on to win the jerwood fiction uncovered prize, was longlisted in the dublin literary awards and was a sunday herald book of the year.

His story centers in paris in his life as the cook in the home of gertrude stein and alice b. About the book of salt a lush, fascinating, expansive first novel about exile. This book covers it allfrom 100ad when ancient chinese lit up natural gas coming out of brinewater wells to pump out the brine through bamboo tubes into boiling houses to boil the water off the salt, to venices saltworks, to the french revolution where the salt tax, known as the gabelle, was a major point of contention, to the american. When the book was first published, in 1952, patricia highsmitha thirtyyearold writer whod just had a major success with her novel strangers on a traincouldnt take the risk. The book of salt is the first novellength work by truong. Empress of salt and fortune, by nghi vo nghi vos new novel is poised at the end of one empire and the beginning of another. The novel will certainly place her as one of the brightest young stars on the american literary scene. The book of salt serves up a wholly original take on paris in the 1930s through the eyes of binh, the vietnamese cook employed by gertrude stein and alice b. Salt houses is a novel about one familys search for home. If youre ready to start a book club, heres 40 of the best book club questions, for fiction.

A british womans account of how she and her terminally ill husband embarked on a 630mile walk along the south west coast path after being made homeless has been shortlisted for the costa book. It has so much to offer teen and adult readers, and its a perfect companion novel to sepetys between shades of gray, set in 1941 in a siberian forcedlarbor camp. New york times an irresistible, scrupulously engineered confection that weaves together history, art and human nature. The book of salt, her first novel, was inspired by a brief mention of an indochinese cook in the alice b. The book of salt is made to be devoured in a single nighta rare and genuine pleasure.

The book of salt is a 2003 novel by monique truong. Salt is the history of the world told from the point of view of the only rock that we eat, which is salt. Monique truongs first novel, the book of salt, is a remarkably inventive fictional account of a vietnamese cook whom truong appropriated from several. Salt to the sea is a 2016 historical fiction young adult novel by ruta sepetys. This is a very interesting book, but i cant say that i couldnt put it down. Zeyn joukhadar is the author of the map of salt and stars and the thirty names of night. The story also touches on the disappearance of the amber room, a work of art stolen by the nazis that has never been recovered. Costa book awards shortlist memoir of homeless couples. Ash may have escaped the immortalworshipping cult that killed her mother, but the love of her life is still under its thrall. I use earl lovelaces novel salt in a course i teach on the african diaspora at ucsanta cruz. In fact, those whove read that novel will recognize one of the main characters in salt to the sea. The book of salt is vietnameseamerican author monique truongs first novel. That sepetys gives a full picture of each charactereven unlikable ones like alfred and evais important to her claim that nothing in history is black and white. Her first novel, the book of salt, was a new york times notable book and a national bestseller.

While salt to the sea is a work of historical fiction that tells the story of real historical events, it is also fundamentally a characterdriven novel. Ive been in a lot of book clubs, and i know its not always easy to get a conversation going on a book. The book of salt is a brilliant debut by a young vietnamese american, monique truong. Truong has, after much deliberation, cultivated a veritable feast. Toklas, as a background against which to tell her tale. The price of salt later republished under the title carol is a 1952 romance novel by patricia highsmith, first published under the pseudonym claire morgan. The book of salt by monique truong about the book about the author an interview with monique truong about the book monique truongs debut novel, the book of salt houghton mifflin, april 2003, is a true literary feast. The scope of this book is epic in that it starts at the beginning of recorded world history and ends at roughly present day times. Kurlanskys book about salt, like his book on cod, is loaded with detail.