Saltwater: A Novel
Written by Jessica Andrews
Narrated by Natalie Ann Jamieson
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
This “luminous” (The Observer) feminist coming-of-age novel captures in sensuous, blistering prose the richness and imperfection of the bond between a daughter and her mother.
It begins with our bodies...Safe together in the violet dark and yet already there are spaces beginning to open between us.
From that first salty, viscous connection, through the ups and downs of a working-class childhood in northern England, the one constant in Lucy’s life has been her mother: comforting and mysterious, ferociously loving, tirelessly devoted, as much a part of Lucy as her own skin. Her lessons in womanhood shape Lucy’s appreciation for desire, her sense of duty as a caretaker, her hunger for a better, maybe reckless life.
At university, Lucy’s background sets her apart from her classmates and London, even as she struggles with the excruciating, slow separation from her mother. Her father goes missing just after she graduates; her shift into adulthood comes with the burden of choosing how much of her father’s trouble to take on. When her grandfather dies, she escapes to his tiny house in Donegal, a place where her mother once found happiness. There she will take a lover, live inside art and the past, and track back through her memories and her mother’s stories to make sense of her place in the world.
In “a stunning new voice in British literary fiction” (The Independent) that lays bare our raw, dark selves, Jessica Andrews’s debut honors the beauty, complexity, and mixed blessings of daughterhood. Intricately woven in lyrical vignettes, Saltwater is a coming-of-age novel about finding a way forward by looking back.
Photograph of cloud reflected in puddle: Jason Martin / Millennium Images, UK
Jessica Andrews
Jessica Andrews writes fiction and poetry. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, Elle, AnOther, Somesuch Stories, Shabby Doll House, and Papaya Press, among others. She teaches literature and creative writing, and is coeditor of The Grapevine, an online arts and literary magazine that aims to give a platform to underrepresented writers. Saltwater is her first novel.
Related to Saltwater
Related audiobooks
Mother Winter: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ghost Girl, Banana: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends & Dark Shapes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMagma: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feast Your Eyes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demi-Gods Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Braised Pork Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl at the Door: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Falconer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pure Colour: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Savage Tongues Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Remains of Elsie Jane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReproduction: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Motherhood: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parade: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Selfie as Big as the Ritz: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lightness: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ponti Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Constellations: Reflections from Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Can Only Save Ourselves: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bodies of Light Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Violets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Expectation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Atlas of Reds and Blues: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch the Rabbit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chouette Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tornado Weather: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Covenant of Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust: The Gift Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Keeper of Lost Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Third Mrs. Galway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Saltwater
4 ratings0 reviews