Charlotte Runcie

A lyrical exploration of the sea, how it inspires art, music and literature, and how it connects us

Women and the Sea

Salt on Your Tongue

W ustach sól

“Intimate, real, and really funny. This one has teeth.” —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Come and Get It and Such a Fun Age A theatre critic at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival writes a vicious one-star review of a struggling actress he has a one-night stand with in this sharply funny, feminist tinderbox. Alex Lyons always has his mind made up by the time the curtain comes down at a performance—the show either deserves a five-star rave, or a one-star pan. Anything in between is meaningless. On the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he doesn’t deliberate over the rating for Hayley Sinclair’s show, nor does he hesitate when the opportunity presents itself to have a one-night stand with the struggling actress. Unaware that she’s gone home with the theatre critic who’s just written a career-ending review of her, Hayley wakes up at his apartment to see his scathing one-star critique in print on the kitchen table, and she’s not sure which humiliation offends her the most. So she revamps her show into a viral sensation critiquing Alex Lyons himself—entitled son of a famous actress, serial philanderer, and by all accounts a terrible man. Yet Alex remains unapologetic. As his reputation goes up in flames, he insists on telling his unvarnished version of events to his colleague, Sophie. Through her eyes, we see that the deeper she gets pulled into his downfall, the more conflicted she becomes. After all, there are always two sides to every story. A brilliant Trojan horse of a book about art, power, misogyny, and female rage, Bring the House Down is a searing, insightful, and often hilarious debut that captures the blurred line between reality and performance.

A Novel

Bring the House Down

Das Meer hat Charlotte Runcie schon immer magisch angezogen - die beruhigende, meditative Seite ebenso wie die wilde unbezähmbare. Als Charlotte ihre geliebte Großmutter verliert und zum ersten Mal schwanger ist, verspürt sie diesen Drang so stark wie noch nie. In »Wie Salz auf der Zunge« geht die Autorin nicht nur ihrer ganz persönlichen Faszination auf den Grund. Sie schreibt zugleich eine Kulturgeschichte der See aus weiblicher Sicht: wir erfahren von Meerjungfrauen und Najaden, griechischer Mythologie und schottischen Legenden, Schiffbrüchigen und Sirenen. »Runcie wirft ihr Netz weit aus und kombiniert sehr einfühlsam persönliches Memoir mit profunder Kulturgeschichte.« (The Times)

Charlotte Runcie

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