A Sweet Sting of Salt Paperback by Rose Sutherland

Product Details

• Publisher: Random House Canada (2024-04-09)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 352 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781039008021
• Item Weight: 328.86 grams
• Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.22 x 0.91 cm

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE

When a young woman in 19th century Nova Scotia uncovers a magical secret about her neighbour, she’ll have to fight to keep the truth—and the woman she loves—safe in this stunning queer reimagining of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife.

When a sharp cry wakes Jean, the sole midwife in Barquer’s Bay, Nova Scotia, in the middle of the night, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside during a terrible tempest and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labour, barely able to speak a word of English. Jean can only assume she must be Muirin, the new wife of her neighbour up the road, but when the baby arrives, Jean is only left with more questions. Why is the baby so unusual? And why is Muirin's husband so fearful of his wife and newborn son spending time by the sea?

Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more surprising than she ever could have imagined, and the truth about Muirin's mysterious behaviour reveals her marriage may not be all it seems, will Jean be able to set things right and save the woman she loves before it's too late?

About the Author

Born and raised a voracious reader of anything she could get her hands on in rural Nova Scotia, Rose Sutherland has an overactive imagination and once fell off the roof of her house pretending to be Anne of Green Gables. She’s continued to be entertainingly foolhardy since, graduating from theater school in New York City, apprenticing at a pâtisserie in France, and, most recently, moonlighting as an usher and bartender in Toronto, where she is currently based. Her hobbies include yoga, dancing, singing, hurling herself into large bodies of salt water, searching out amazing coffee and croissants, and making niche jokes about Victor Hugo on the internet. She’s mildly obsessed with the idea of one day owning a large dog, several chickens . . . and maybe a goat. A Sweet Sting of Salt is her first novel.