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Salt River

by
James Sallis

Salt River jacket
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

ISBN: 9781842432785
Price: £7.99
Casing: Paperback
Format: B (198 x 129mm)
Extent: 160pp
Rights: UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada
Pub. Date: March 2009

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 James  Sallis
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James Sallis is a renowned poet, critic, essayist, editor, translator, musicologist, biographer and novelist. He lives in Arizona with his wife Karyn.
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ABOUT THE BOOK


Few American writers create more memorable landscapes — both natural and interior — than James Sallis. His highly praised Lew Griffin novels evoked classic New Orleans and the convoluted inner space of his black private detective. More recently — in Cypress Grove and Cripple Creek — he has conjured a small town somewhere near Memphis, where John Turner — ex-policeman, ex-con, war veteran and former therapist — has come to escape his past. But the past proved inescapable; thrust into the role of Deputy Sheriff, Turner finds himself at the centre of his new community, one that, like so many others, is drying up, disappearing before his eyes.

As Salt River begins, two years have passed since Turner's amour, Val Bjorn, was shot as they sat together on the porch of his cabin. Sometimes you just have to see how much music you can make with what you have left, Val had told him, a mantra for picking up the pieces around her death, not sure how much he or the town has left. Then the sheriff's long-lost son comes ploughing down Main Street into City Hall in what appears to be a stolen car. And waiting at Turner's cabin is his good friend, Eldon Brown, Val's banjo on the back of his motorcycle so that it looks as though he has two heads. 'They think I killed someone,' he says. Turner asks: 'Did you?' And Eldon responds: 'I don't know.' Haunted by his own ghosts, Turner nonetheless goes in search of a truth he's not sure he can live with.

James Sallis has been called by critics one of the best writers in America. 'It's a crime that a writer this good isn't better known,' wrote David Montgomery in the Chicago Tribune, while Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times Book Review called his Turner books 'a superior series... a keeper.' Salt River will take his reputation even higher and reach the wider audience he so richly deserves.


CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"...sublime third novel to feature the philosophical John Turner..." - Publishers Weekly [read the full review]

"...Whenever a critic reviewing a crime novel assigns literary significance to the book, there's a risk of falling into clichés about "transcending genre." The truth is that some writers use and abuse genre constraints as they see fit. They simply write to their voice and interests... James Sallis is such a writer...." - Sarah Weinman, Los Angeles Times [read the full review]

"...Sallis is never about plot, but always about good writing. This little gem is a case in point...." - Kirkus Review [read the full review]






RELATED LINKS

James Sallis' Website

Guardian Interview with James Sallis

James Sallis' work profiled

James Sallis on Patricia Highsmith

Shutting Darkness Down (short story)

James Sallis reviewed in the Los Angeles Times

HOW TO BUY

On-line:
Order from the London Bookshop
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By phone:
+44 20 7430 1021

By fax:
+44 20 7430 0021

By post:
21 Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3JB

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OTHER TITLES AVAILABLE FROM THIS AUTHOR

Cripple Creek (hardback)
Cripple Creek
Cypress Grove (hardback)
Cypress Grove
Death Will Have Your Eyes
Drive (hardback)
Drive
Ghost of a Flea

FORTHCOMING TITLES

Salt River (hardback)