Thirst for Salt (Madelaine Lucas, A&U)

Madelaine Lucas’s debut novel opens with the unnamed female narrator, now 37 years old, recalling a past lover. Twenty-four years old at the time and holidaying with her mother, the narrator meets Jude while swimming at Sailors Beach. Although he is 18 years her senior, on their second meeting she follows him through the bush to his home and so begins an intense love affair. From the beginning we know the relationship does not last, yet its pull clearly does, and Lucas’s prose—lyrical, immediate, mesmerising—has us needing to know why. The mother-daughter relationship is a prominent theme; the narrator is driven by the same personal mythology as her mother ‘that love could restore what was beyond repair’. In an attempt to fill the gaps from a fragmented childhood marked by parental absence and instability, the narrator moves in with Jude, drawn to the quiet simplicity of life in the Old House. But not all is as it appears with Jude. As her expectations of love are challenged, she must choose a path forward. The narrative brims with imagery of the ocean and bush, sweeping along with a quiet melancholy that brings to mind Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow. Seductive and sparklingly clear, Thirst for Salt is an unforgettable meditation on memory, loss and the power of love to endure.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Jacqui Davies is a freelance writer and reviewer based in South Australia. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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