Salt Creek Book Reviews

Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar Book Summary

‘Salt Creek is a raw and convincing addition to the canon. Treloar writes with beauty and a winning compassion.’ The Times, Book of the Year
Failed entrepreneur Stanton Finch moves his family from Adelaide to the remote Coorong area of Southern Australia, in pursuit of his dream to become a farmer.
Housed in a driftwood cabin, they try to make the best of their situation. The children roam the beautiful landscape of Salt Creek; visitors are rare but warmly welcomed; a local Indigenous boy becomes almost part of the family. Yet there are daily hardships, and tensions with the Ngarrindjeri people they have displaced; disaster never seems far away.
With Mrs Finch struggling to cope, Hester, their perceptive eldest daughter, willingly takes on more responsibility. But as Hester’s sense of duty grows, so does a yearning to escape Salt Creek and make a new life of her own …

The multi-award-winning debut historical novel – Walter Scott and Miles Franklin-shortlisted.

Reviews

‘Salt Creek is a love song to a lost world… the precision of Treloar’s poetry stops the heart.’ The Guardian

‘This is another brilliant and absorbing addition to the recent crop of exceptionally fine historical novels exploring the Australian pioneer experience and is very highly recommended.’ Historical Novels Review Magazine

‘Empathetic and beautifully written, the story drives deep into the pioneering experience with the confidence of a writer perfectly at ease with her subject.’ Daily Mail

‘[An] impressive debut… a haunting story.’ The Sunday Times

‘Brilliant and engaging, Salt Creek is first-rate historical fiction.’ Foreword Review

‘A historical novel in its grittiest, most real form’ Good Housekeeping

‘This engrossing novel is rich in character and local colour.’ Woman and Home

‘Salt Creek is an intense personal story, a very human story and a great read.’ New Books Magazine

‘Hester Finch is a wonderful character – the brave heart of this haunting, absorbing story’ Kirsty Wark

‘Evocative and beautifully written debut novel, set in 19th century Australia. Rich with landscape and stifling heat, it is absorbing and thought-provoking.’ The Bookbag

‘Salt Creek is historical fiction at its best, ferrying us to distant shores that seem curiously relevant to our own’ Toast Magazine[Ink@84]

‘Refigures the historical novel … Salt Creek introduces a capacious new talent’ The Australian

‘Written with a profound respect for history: with an understanding that beyond a certain point, the past and its people are unknowable.’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘[A] deeply moving story about love and rejection as much as it is about the impact of European settlement and the destruction of Indigenous culture.’ Sunday Age

‘A haunting story, beautifully written and quietly subversive.  It’s a spectacular debut.’ ANZ Lit Lovers

‘Salt Creek is a novel alive with character, history and poetry, leading us with careful understatement into the unfamiliar world of the Coorong region of Southern Australia.’ Walter Scott Prize Jury

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Salt Creek (Lucy Treloar) Book Reviews 2024

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