Joanne M Harris

An earthly nourris sits and sings And aye she sings, "Ba lilly wean, Little ken I my bairn's father, Far less the land that he staps in. (Child Ballad, no. 113) So begins a stunning tale of love, loss and revenge, against a powerful backdrop of adventure on the high seas, and drama on the land. The Blue Salt Road balances passion and loss, love and violence and draws on nature and folklore to weave a stunning modern mythology around a nameless, wild young man. Passion drew him to a new world, and trickery has kept him there - without his memories, separated from his own people. But as he finds his way in this dangerous new way of life, so he learns that his notions of home, and your people, might not be as fixed as he believed. Beautifully illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins, this is a stunning and original modern fairytale.

The Blue Salt Road

Aleena Korell

Stories, like traveling folk, never die, but always move on. There are stories everywhere; in the air; the food you eat; in the embers of the fire. And when you go to bed at night, and listen to the wind in the eaves, there are stories under the bed and hiding in the shadows.

Beautifully written, deeply sad. The Blue Salt Road is true to the Scottish folktale, The Grey Selkie of Sule Skerry (Child Ballad 113), which is quoted often throughout the story. It reads like a folktale, though lingers on descriptions of the sea, the Scottish cliffs, the icy sting of winter and the warm melt of spring. Though the writing is flawless, I find that I can't rate it higher than 4 stars because the story is less a blend of bitter and sweet than mostly just straight bitterness and loss. An underlying dread weaves throughout all the story, only for (view spoiler)[just one, maybe two characters to escape with a semblance of actual happiness in the end. (hide spoiler)]

The Blue Salt Road

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