The Salt King
A Novel
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The Salt King
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Natasha Pulley
Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken was born into a mining family in Hreodwater, a small, totally isolated salt town in the Fens of England. At age 16, he fled, abandoning his faith in the god of the mine—the Salt King—and the mythology that killed his whole family.
When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent by the Vatican to investigate. But in Hreodwater, the town’s gentle doctor, Jericho, tells him that the priest is not the only one experiencing strange cures—and may not be the only one in danger from a substance in the mine that the locals call “salt light.”
Avelyn and Jericho team up to protect the world from the salt light—but they may already be too late: strange happenings are occurring at mines all around the world. At an archaeological dig on the Dead Sea, electrical devices froth salt; at another salt mine in Russia, a KGB officer finds the bodies of five tourists who seem to have turned to salt; and at the huge salt works at Wieliczska in Poland, all communication is lost, and rumors circulate of total annihilation.
As salt light spreads, devastating cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what and who to believe—and whether his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.©2026 Natasha Pulley (P)2026 Hachette UK
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Critic reviews
The Salt King is a multi-genre marvel, a concoction that's equal parts adventure tale, tender-hearted romance, and apocalyptic vision. With enviable dexterity Pulley mixes religion, science, and magic, never letting up the tension as her story sweeps us around the globe. But it's her characters who truly bring the book to life, their voices droll and earnest, melancholy and hilarious. I guarantee you'll be thinking about this book long after you turn the final page!
Pulley cleverly reckons with thorny questions of truth versus belief, faith versus institutions, and whether it’s better to navigate the unimaginable alone or with a companion whose very presence you doubt . . . Though the novel deals in prophecy and cataclysm, it champions free will down to its very last moments. Gripping and heartfelt, this prismatic novel is more than worth its salt.
This garden path of a novel shifts back and forth seamlessly from fantasy-mystery to subtle romance to a reflection on how frameworks shape reality, without dropping tension . . . A compelling religious alternate-history mystery about isolation, spectrums of religious and romantic love, and beliefs defining and dividing community.
Pulley brings out her favorite elements-palace intrigue, gallant lovers, masks, transformations, ambiguity, automata-and twists them into mesmerizing patterns . . . This love story is witty, bittersweet, surprising, and compellingly readable.
A queer love story wrapped up in questions about the end of empire and the need for revelry-quite fitting for 2025.
Delightful . . . moves as nimbly as its ballet-dancer hero . . . pivoting toward something that's both nuanced and fresh. The result is both an epic love story and a deft political thriller.
Beautiful, surreal imagery appears throughout the novel, too . . . Clear a weekend if you can, and let yourself be absorbed.
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