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Salt Rain
When fourteen-year-old Allie s mother, Mae, mysteriously disappears in the dark waters of the Sydney harbor, Allie must face the secrets buried in the mud-rich landscape of Mae s childhood. Set within Australia s lush rain forest at the height of the rainy season, Salt Rain is an absorbing debut about sifting through the complicated stories that shape us, and ultimately reclaiming them as our own.
- GenresFiction
218 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Armstrong
6 books49 followersSarah was a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation before writing three novels, Salt Rain , which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, 'His Other House' and 'Promise'. Her first novel for kids is 'Big Magic.' http://www.sarah-armstrong
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 25, 2023
3.5 stars. A sad, tragic, engaging, mostly plot based novel of a family with a hidden secret. Fourteen year old Allie has agreed to go to her aunt Julia’s house in the rain soaked country. Allie’s mother, Mae, has gone missing and is believed to have drowned. Allie gradually learns about her mother’s mysterious and cloudy past.
I found the novel to be a quick, gripping read, but not a book I would consider rereading.
This book was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin award.
I found the novel to be a quick, gripping read, but not a book I would consider rereading.
This book was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin award.
July 2, 2021
‘Every tree sliding by was a marker of the distance stretching between Allie and her mother, stretching thinner with every moment.’
Fourteen-year-old Allie lives with her mother Mae in Sydney. Allie has the stories Mae has told her about the past and about who Allie’s father is. And if Allie was curious, she was happy with her mother’s stories – until Mae disappeared. Allie’s aunt Julia travelled to Sydney to take Allie back to her home surrounded by rainforest, a lush green space, during the wet season.
Allie, convinced that her mother would not leave her, is waiting for her mother to return and wants to return to Sydney. While she waits, she meets members of her extended family and other people whom her mother knew. She wonders about her father: was it Saul (Mae’s First Love) or the balloon man from the fair as Mae had always claimed? The balloon man is unknown and long gone, whereas Saul still lives close by. Allie wants it to be Saul but trying to find the truth is going to take her into an uncomfortable and confronting past.
In fewer than 220 pages, Ms Armstrong takes us deep into the ancient rainforest, fighting its own battle for survival and into Allie’s complicated family history. Julia has some of the answers, as does Saul but what will Allie make of the truth?
While I did not find this an easy novel to read because of some of the themes, I admired the way in which Ms Armstrong handled several complex and uncomfortable issues. A story which will stay with me.
‘They would float all the way to the sea, to the wide salty sea.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Fourteen-year-old Allie lives with her mother Mae in Sydney. Allie has the stories Mae has told her about the past and about who Allie’s father is. And if Allie was curious, she was happy with her mother’s stories – until Mae disappeared. Allie’s aunt Julia travelled to Sydney to take Allie back to her home surrounded by rainforest, a lush green space, during the wet season.
Allie, convinced that her mother would not leave her, is waiting for her mother to return and wants to return to Sydney. While she waits, she meets members of her extended family and other people whom her mother knew. She wonders about her father: was it Saul (Mae’s First Love) or the balloon man from the fair as Mae had always claimed? The balloon man is unknown and long gone, whereas Saul still lives close by. Allie wants it to be Saul but trying to find the truth is going to take her into an uncomfortable and confronting past.
In fewer than 220 pages, Ms Armstrong takes us deep into the ancient rainforest, fighting its own battle for survival and into Allie’s complicated family history. Julia has some of the answers, as does Saul but what will Allie make of the truth?
While I did not find this an easy novel to read because of some of the themes, I admired the way in which Ms Armstrong handled several complex and uncomfortable issues. A story which will stay with me.
‘They would float all the way to the sea, to the wide salty sea.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
May 29, 2016
My first for the 2016 Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge and it was an ok one.
This is the story of a young girl searching for answers about herself and her mother.
It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, but it didn't keep me engaged all the way through to be honest. The main character was a little overly dramatic and somewhat annoying in places.
I read this one basically because I was to read the author's 2nd novel His Other House, so we'll have to wait and see if that is any more established.
This is the story of a young girl searching for answers about herself and her mother.
It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, but it didn't keep me engaged all the way through to be honest. The main character was a little overly dramatic and somewhat annoying in places.
I read this one basically because I was to read the author's 2nd novel His Other House, so we'll have to wait and see if that is any more established.
August 21, 2020
Sarah Armstrong's first novel, Salt Rain, has a lot of things going for it: it's short (224 pages), it keeps its roll-call of characters to a minimum, it keeps the story-line moving ever onward, and it keeps the time-frame of the plot to a period of only a month or two.
I don't want to seem patronising when I say that but a lot of first novels feel rather bloated in terms of character numbers, time-frame and page-count, and this one doesn't. And in my view that's a big plus right from the outset.
Salt Rain concerns the story of Allie, a fourteen-year-old girl living with her single mother Mae in Sydney. One night Mae goes missing and her sister Julia arrives to take Allie back to her mother's rain-forest valley home. There she waits for news of her mother, meeting her extended family and attempting to piece together the true story of her mother and of her own birth. Mae has been a story-teller, embellishing and polishing her history for Allie's benefit, which has left Allie with a distorted view of her own beginnings: including the true identity of her father. Was it Saul, the First Love (sic), who still lives next door to Julia, or the balloon man from the fair as Mae always made out?
Allie has to cross a number of boundaries during her journey into the truth about her family, with most of the crossings being painful. The only trouble is, the revelations, as they come to light, are meant to be surprising, yet few of them are unguessable. Younger readers might find the final truth disturbing, older ones - such as the present reviewer - have seen it before. But that is not to say that the journey is unsatisfying. On the contrary, Armstrong has a fine readable style, she sketches interesting characters and landscapes; though having Mae, the most interesting of the bunch, off-stage for the bulk of the book is a bit of a dampener.
There's a lot of promise here and I look forward to her future work.
I don't want to seem patronising when I say that but a lot of first novels feel rather bloated in terms of character numbers, time-frame and page-count, and this one doesn't. And in my view that's a big plus right from the outset.
Salt Rain concerns the story of Allie, a fourteen-year-old girl living with her single mother Mae in Sydney. One night Mae goes missing and her sister Julia arrives to take Allie back to her mother's rain-forest valley home. There she waits for news of her mother, meeting her extended family and attempting to piece together the true story of her mother and of her own birth. Mae has been a story-teller, embellishing and polishing her history for Allie's benefit, which has left Allie with a distorted view of her own beginnings: including the true identity of her father. Was it Saul, the First Love (sic), who still lives next door to Julia, or the balloon man from the fair as Mae always made out?
Allie has to cross a number of boundaries during her journey into the truth about her family, with most of the crossings being painful. The only trouble is, the revelations, as they come to light, are meant to be surprising, yet few of them are unguessable. Younger readers might find the final truth disturbing, older ones - such as the present reviewer - have seen it before. But that is not to say that the journey is unsatisfying. On the contrary, Armstrong has a fine readable style, she sketches interesting characters and landscapes; though having Mae, the most interesting of the bunch, off-stage for the bulk of the book is a bit of a dampener.
There's a lot of promise here and I look forward to her future work.
June 20, 2018
This story is one that takes time to digest. While the characters feel familiar, the themes the story is built around are not comfortable to consider. The lives of Julia, Allie and Mae take the reader deep into the heart ache of dark family secrets, exploring how each generation makes sense of the legacy left behind.
December 30, 2019
A heart wrenching subject written with such beautifully descriptive language that you felt yourself standing in the rain crying!
August 5, 2015
I'm a picky reader. If a book doesn't grab me by the first page or two, I will ditch it and find another.
This book grabbed me. Its easy reading, well written style was so smooth I forgot I was reading sometimes and this allowed the story to simply unfold. This is my favourite kind of reading.
I'm not sure if it is Armstrong's first book, but the characters were very believable - their histories and inter-relationships all rang true. The men's voices were believable 'don't start', 'I don't know', 'I was confused'. There were no men hankering to talk about their feelings - which I always find a little suspicious in TV scripts.
I had a few sticking points: 1. Who was the narrator? I would have liked it to have been the 14yo girl. Instead it was the omniscient observer. I would have preferred the voice to have been the girl's.
2. There wasn't a lot of light or brevity in this story. It was classic secret and lies family drama. Surely there had to be a funny story or two in there?
3. A bit of repetition: water rising; constant rain, mud, running through mud and water. Running through the forest. More running through the forest. Hot grass. Hot grass? I grew up in a hot place, I can never remember the grass being hot. Bitumen yes; Sand definitely. But grass? Yet to be convinced on that one. It is tiny, but distracted me from my absent minded reverie.
There was one cracker of a line, page 118: The aunt, Julia, says to her niece Allie, who is trying to piece together the stories her mother told her: 'You know, sometimes the stories we tell are not for other people, they're for us. We're really telling them for ourselves.' Loved this line. A simple observation. A piece of truth.
Re the storyline, (without it being a spoiler), when the secret is revealed, there are a whole swag of people who didn't act. Perfect book group discussion question: 'Who should have acted? And why?'.
If these small issues: more light; a clear narrator and less repetition had been addressed, I would give this book four stars.
This book grabbed me. Its easy reading, well written style was so smooth I forgot I was reading sometimes and this allowed the story to simply unfold. This is my favourite kind of reading.
I'm not sure if it is Armstrong's first book, but the characters were very believable - their histories and inter-relationships all rang true. The men's voices were believable 'don't start', 'I don't know', 'I was confused'. There were no men hankering to talk about their feelings - which I always find a little suspicious in TV scripts.
I had a few sticking points: 1. Who was the narrator? I would have liked it to have been the 14yo girl. Instead it was the omniscient observer. I would have preferred the voice to have been the girl's.
2. There wasn't a lot of light or brevity in this story. It was classic secret and lies family drama. Surely there had to be a funny story or two in there?
3. A bit of repetition: water rising; constant rain, mud, running through mud and water. Running through the forest. More running through the forest. Hot grass. Hot grass? I grew up in a hot place, I can never remember the grass being hot. Bitumen yes; Sand definitely. But grass? Yet to be convinced on that one. It is tiny, but distracted me from my absent minded reverie.
There was one cracker of a line, page 118: The aunt, Julia, says to her niece Allie, who is trying to piece together the stories her mother told her: 'You know, sometimes the stories we tell are not for other people, they're for us. We're really telling them for ourselves.' Loved this line. A simple observation. A piece of truth.
Re the storyline, (without it being a spoiler), when the secret is revealed, there are a whole swag of people who didn't act. Perfect book group discussion question: 'Who should have acted? And why?'.
If these small issues: more light; a clear narrator and less repetition had been addressed, I would give this book four stars.
March 16, 2021
When I ask my dad how he is, he usually says "Not bad, not good mind you, but not bad." This ambivalence sums up how I feel about Salt Rain. It kept my interest, it wasn't a bad read, but I never really connected with it.
For me (and this is a purely personal reaction to the writing) I never really bought into the lives of any of the characters. It wasn't as if the characters weren't three dimensional, or that the plot had any holes. The pacing worked well, and information was revealed at the right time, and the descriptions of the northern NSW forest setting was, well, okay.
But there is a cohesiveness missing from this book, it is somehow missing its heart. I'm finding it hard to pinpoint exactly why this is. Most of the writing was quite good, although at times it descended into cliche. Perhaps that's why I didn't really believe any of it. The subject matter in this book should have grabbed me by the throat and dragged me in. Instead it waggled its fingers half-heartedly. It just didn't work for me.
But others may feel completely differently about this book. It's not overly long, so why not give it a go and tell me how wrong I am about it.
For me (and this is a purely personal reaction to the writing) I never really bought into the lives of any of the characters. It wasn't as if the characters weren't three dimensional, or that the plot had any holes. The pacing worked well, and information was revealed at the right time, and the descriptions of the northern NSW forest setting was, well, okay.
But there is a cohesiveness missing from this book, it is somehow missing its heart. I'm finding it hard to pinpoint exactly why this is. Most of the writing was quite good, although at times it descended into cliche. Perhaps that's why I didn't really believe any of it. The subject matter in this book should have grabbed me by the throat and dragged me in. Instead it waggled its fingers half-heartedly. It just didn't work for me.
But others may feel completely differently about this book. It's not overly long, so why not give it a go and tell me how wrong I am about it.
October 10, 2019
*Spoilers*
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I read this book very many years ago, as a much younger girl. Probably also 14. And to this day, I am shaken by it. I vividly recall the scene in the sheds and I cannot shake how awful that was. I guess that makes it good writing but I also don't recall enjoying the book. I continued reading as an exercise of curious pain.
I found it via a library children section and I am sure that this was not the best place for it.
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I read this book very many years ago, as a much younger girl. Probably also 14. And to this day, I am shaken by it. I vividly recall the scene in the sheds and I cannot shake how awful that was. I guess that makes it good writing but I also don't recall enjoying the book. I continued reading as an exercise of curious pain.
I found it via a library children section and I am sure that this was not the best place for it.
March 26, 2014
Nothing exciting but not bad either. Perhaps a bit too short to really get attached to any of the characters. Though they seemed real enough they just lacked some substance. A good read but would've been improved with more - more back story, more scenery/imagery, more depth of characters. The actual topic/issue is actually quite serious and it's a shame it wasn't explored more. Doing so would've brought depth, meaning and the chance to develop complex characters and story.
July 4, 2013
I really loved this book. The descriptions were so lush and powerful, and I felt very connected to the characters. I especially love the ambiguity of Mae's character and the exploration that we can never truly 'know' a person, no matter how close we think we are to them... Highly recommend this read. A good one to read on holidays as you can finish it on a week or less.
September 29, 2015
Not bad, but I wouldn't jump to read another by her. Too long, I thought. It would have been a better short story or novella. Our heroine is a bit laboured, a bit overly dramatic (I know, she's 14, so some of that might be excused). Also a little predictable, all of it. However, Armstrong can write. Let's hope she keeps improving.
July 31, 2012
The evidence that this book was enjoyable was that I read it two days! Interesting story about a teenage girl who loses her mother set in Australia. This book has mystery, complex relationships and lots of rain. Highly recommended.
February 3, 2015
I found the writing style to be very choppy and scattered. I didn't find there was much character depth. The story was ok, until statutory rape was brushed over like no big deal. It felt like a foundation for something that could've been better.
July 15, 2008
I wrote a review on this book for TimeOut Chicago. It was positive: http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articl...
May 21, 2011
quite some dark issues, set against a beautiful part of NSW.
December 13, 2015
Worth reading for the ending but I found a strange lack of emotion in the characters interactions.
March 14, 2022
I like ozzie bushland, rain and stoic women in my books and I found them all here.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews