Armfield, Julia: Salt Slow

In this haunting debut collection, Julia Armfield maps the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge. Teenagers develop ungodly appetites, a city becomes insomniac overnight, and bodies are diligently picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and sleepy sea-side towns are invaded and transformed, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to its inhabitants. Blurring the mythic and the gothic with the everyday, Salt Slow considers characters in motion - turning away, turning back or simply turning into something new entirely. Winner of The White Review Short Story Prize, Armfield is a writer of sharp, lyrical prose and tilting dark humour. ‘ Salt Slow is exemplary. A distinct new gothic, melancholy, powerful and poised,‘ says China Miéville, author of The City & The City . Wickedly clever and darkly comedic, Armfield‘s stories look at women‘s bodies and their experiences in society through an eerie, otherworldly lens. For fans of Carmen Maria Machado, Sophie Mackintosh and Megan Hunter.