A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland, Book Review

This review of A Sweet Sting of Salt appeared previously in the May 2024 Historical Novels Review.

I particularly enjoyed this engaging riff on an old and somewhat disturbing folktale. It received an Editors’ Choice award in HNR.

A Masterful, Sapphic Sweet Sting of Salt

Sutherland retells the folktale, “The Selkie Wife,” in this moving novel of two women and their potential love for each other. Sutherland exposes the violence and cruelty inherent in this folk tradition of a mythic creature captured by a man and forced to be his wife. The plot keeps the reader on edge, driven by gradually revealed heroes and villains with complex motives. Sutherland brings to life nineteenth century Nova Scotia. She immerses her reader in the daily routines of Jean, the town’s midwife, as she tends goats and chickens on her small coastal homestead, and as she navigates the vicious gossip that forces her to hold herself separate from others except when her services are needed. The angry mother of the girl Jean loved in a way forbidden by the community has made it her job to marginalize Jean. Then one wet night, Jean finds her mysterious neighbor outside, seeking something Jean doesn’t understand, but also heavily pregnant and very much in need of Jean’s midwifery. More trouble comes with the introduction of the woman’s husband and escalates with deadly consequences. Jean has allies in town who will help if only Jean will let them.

Skillful Language

Sutherland creates vivid language to express both physical descriptions and inner emotions. For example, a cold dawn leaves “the grass silver tipped and furred with frost.” At a reminder of Jean’s first love, “The memory opened up a hollow between Jean’s shoulders, where her spine ought to be, as empty and cold as the hours after midnight.” When she’s neglected someone, “Jean’s skin shrunk, prickling with guilt.”

The novel is a striking, beautifully written love story set in a world of finely portrayed details.

Further Reading

To find out more about Rose Sutherland, you can go to her website.

If you’d like to buy a copy, you can find it on Amazon or Bookshop.org.