Thirst for Salt

A heady story about a life-changing summer romance, perfect for fans of ATheatre for Dreamers and Sorrow & Bliss 'A love affair so richly and attentively imagined it carries the grace and gravity of memory itself.' Leslie Jamison Our narrator is twenty-four years old when she and her mother arrive in the tiny coastal town of Sailors Beach. Their holiday, she hopes, will be a pause between her life as a student and whatever happens next. Summer stretches before her: unplanned, full of possibility. And into this space walks Jude. Finding herself pulled to this man twenty years her senior she begins losing herself in the simple, seductive rhythms of his everyday life. Thirteen years later, she happens across a photo of Jude with a child. A photo that leaves her questioning choices she has made for herself. A photo that brings back memories of a summer that changed her forever. A magnetic story of the complexities of desire, and a powerful reckoning with memory, loss and longing, Madelaine Lucas' debut novel reveals, with stunning, sensual immediacy the way the past can hold us in its thrall, shaping who we are and what we love. 'A mesmerizing portrait of a romance with graceful, seductive writing.' Bustle A Bustle , LitHub , Debutiful , and NYLON Most Anticipated Book of 2023 A Goodreads Buzziest Book of the New Year *A DEBUTIFUL 'Best Book of 2023 Jan-June'

A heady story about a life-changing summer romance, perfect for fans of A Theatre for Dreamers and Sorrow & Bliss 'A love affair so richly and attentively imagined it carries the grace and gravity of memory itself.' Leslie Jamison Our narrator is twenty-four years old when she and her mother arrive in the tiny coastal town of Sailors Beach. Their holiday, she hopes, will be a pause between her life as a student and whatever happens next. Summer stretches before her: unplanned, full of possibility. And into this space walks Jude. Finding herself pulled to this man twenty years her senior she begins losing herself in the simple, seductive rhythms of his everyday life. Thirteen years later, she happens across a photo of Jude with a child. A photo that leaves her questioning choices she has made for herself. A photo that brings back memories of a summer that changed her forever. A magnetic story of the complexities of desire, and a powerful reckoning with memory, loss and longing, Madelaine Lucas' debut novel reveals, with stunning, sensual immediacy the way the past can hold us in its thrall, shaping who we are and what we love. 'A mesmerizing portrait of a romance with graceful, seductive writing.' Bustle A Bustle , LitHub , Debutiful , and NYLON Most Anticipated Book of 2023 A Goodreads Buzziest Book of the New Year * A DEBUTIFUL 'Best Book of 2023 Jan-June'

It's hard to remember now that I was once that girl, lying in the sand in my red swimsuit and swimming late into the day. Sharkbait , he called me. It's in the water where she first sees him: a local man almost twenty years her senior. Adrift in the summer after finishing college, a young woman is on holiday with her mother in an isolated Australian coastal town. Finding herself pulled to Jude, the man in the water, she begins losing herself in the simple, seductive rhythms of his everyday life. As their relationship deepens, life at Sailors Beach offers her the stability she has been craving as the daughter of two drifters--a loving but impulsive mother and an itinerant father. But the arrival of Maeve, a friend from Jude's past, threatens to rock their fragile, newfound intimacy. And when she witnesses something she doesn't fully understand, she finds herself questioning everything--about Jude, about herself, about the life she has and the one she wants. A magnetic and unforgettable story of desire and its complexities, and a powerful reckoning with memory, loss, and longing, Madelaine Lucas's debut novel, Thirst for Salt , reveals with stunning, sensual immediacy the way the past can hold us in its thrall, shaping who we are and what we love.

It's hard to remember now that I was once that girl, lying in the sand in my red swimsuit and swimming late into the day. Sharkbait , he called me. It's in the water where she first sees him: a local man almost twenty years her senior. Adrift in the summer after finishing college, a young woman is on holiday with her mother in an isolated Australian coastal town. Finding herself pulled to Jude, the man in the water, she begins losing herself in the simple, seductive rhythms of his everyday life. As their relationship deepens, life at Sailors Beach offers her the stability she has been craving as the daughter of two drifters--a loving but impulsive mother and an itinerant father. But the arrival of Maeve, a friend from Jude's past, threatens to rock their fragile, newfound intimacy. And when she witnesses something she doesn't fully understand, she finds herself questioning everything--about Jude, about herself, about the life she has and the one she wants. A magnetic and unforgettable story of desire and its complexities, and a powerful reckoning with memory, loss, and longing, Madelaine Lucas's debut novel, Thirst for Salt , reveals with stunning, sensual immediacy the way the past can hold us in its thrall, shaping who we are and what we love.