Lead Review (Salt Bones)

• Book: Salt Bones
• Location: The Salton Sea
• Author: Jennifer Givhan

Review Author: tripfiction

From the opening pages, the writing assaults the reader’s senses, as the story unfurls. There is colour and poetic prose that is the hallmark of a gifted storyteller and poet. It may not appeal to all but I think anyone picking this book up will appreciate the lyrical combination of words. This is a Spanish re-telling of the story of Demeter and Persephone.

The rich setting in which the story unfolds is evocative and on several levels informative of the people who live around The Salton Sea. Over centuries, there was much migration back and forth between this area and Mexico and the narrative  includes a lot of Mexican Spanish, which may be alienating for some and immersive for others (I think it would be helpful to know some basic Spanish).

This area, once almost a garden of Eden, is now polluted and as a backdrop, adds a visceral quality to the storyline. At the beginning of the book there is a family tree which helps to keep the characters and their relationships to each other straight.

Mal Veracruz has two daughters, Amaranta and Griselda, and in younger years she suffered the unexplained disappearance of her sister, Elena. Another girl now goes missing in the area and the old wounds are opened up once again – Mal has no choice but to buckle up and dig deep to find out was is going on.

There are quite a few good twists in the story, coupled with a touch of ethereal otherworldliness, a contemplation of society and ethnic minorities, the place of women within the community and a delve into familial relationships.

This novel will particularly appeal to fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work.

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