Salt Rain

In this evocative debut novel, 15-year-old Allie Curran refuses to believe that her mother, Mae, has drowned in the murky waters of Australia’s Sydney Harbor. Mae is a brilliant swimmer who takes nude dips in the harbor by moonlight. Allie knows this about Mae, just as she claims to know everything about her—from the shockingly intimate details of her mother’s sex life to her philosophical musings about the afterlife. Allie’s relationship with her mother is built upon the intricate stories Mae told her, and she is as fiercely devoted to these narratives about her past as she is to her mom. However, when her aunt Julia arrives to take Allie back to the family farm in the flood-soaked rainforest of New South Wales, Allie begins to discover that her mother is as much of a mystery as the circumstances of her death.

The chapters in Salt Rain, which alternate in perspective from Allie to Julia to Mae’s first love, Saul, create fissures in the elaborate mythology that Mae created for her daughter. Mae’s stories are captivating, romantic; we want to believe Mae just as much as Allie does, but we know, perhaps more than Allie does, that her reality is not truthful.

Armstrong’s writing is not without flaws. Her characterization of Allie’s adolescent sexuality is overdone; touches always linger, breasts strain against fabric and sweat beads on skin. Armstrong’s characterization of Julia remains underdeveloped, unfortunately. While her memories of Mae allow us to understand her sister better, her compelling eccentricities are given short shrift.

Still, the mystery drives the story. The tangle of rainforest, willfully nurtured by Julia on the crumbling remains of the family farm, serves to obscure family secrets. The novel is awash in fluid—blood, milk, tears, and the relentless rain of flood season. Neither the rain nor Allie’s painful revelations show any signs of stopping, building a momentum in the novel that makes it difficult to put down.—Katherine Voss