Thirst for Salt is a first novel by a young writer from Australia. The novel came out this year but it's not in the least woke. It's written as if wokeness had never been invented.
Of course, the events in the novel occur in the world that exists in reality and will inevitably produce wokeness. Thirst for Salt is a love story, beautifully written, very touching and depicting a relationship that is clearly completely doomed. This isn't a spoiler. The failure of the love between the main characters is announced from the first page. As we read about what caused the failure, it becomes clear that the characters collapse under the weight of endless choice and freedom. They have no idea how to proceed to the next stage, how to stop choosing, how to be content with life and not be lured by fantasies of imaginary other possibilities.
The man and the woman in this novel both want family, domesticity, stability, children and love that endures. But they always heard that wanting that is weird, embarrassing. You need "freedom" and "achievement". So they play at "freedom" until there's no more love left, and this game is, of course, a lot more damaging to a woman.
This is not an ideological novel. It's a book about love, and it really reminded me about the early stages of my love with N. Beautiful writing, it's all set in less inhabited areas of Southern Australia. Extremely memorable characters, and again, no wokeness. I came across this novel completely by accident at a bookstore yesterday, and I'm happy I did. This is why bookstores are great. On Amazon I'd never seek a debut novel by a 30-year-old Australian teaching at Columbia. But at a bookstore one gets a lot more adventurous.
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