Salt Rain
By (Author) Sarah Armstrong
Allen & Unwin
Allen & Unwin
1st July 2004
Australia
Tertiary Education
Fiction
823
Short-listed for Miles Franklin Literary Award 2005 (Australia)
Paperback
228
Width 130mm, Height 195mm
256g
When her free-spirited mother, Mae, mysteriously disappears from their home in the city, fourteen-year-old Allie is whisked away into a rainforested valley in northern NSW by an aunt she barely knows, Julia. On the dilapidated dairy farm where Julia and Mae grew up, Allie waits impatiently for her mother to call. As these anxious days pass, Allie learns about Mae's childhood, her first love, and about Mae herself through the eyes of others. Allie watches Julia, who is determined to return the valley to its natural order, replanting the trees of the forest that her grandfather cleared for grazing. Allie, trying to decipher the truth and lies that her mother has told her, is forced to come to grips with the many secrets held close in the valley. Beautifully written, Salt Rain is an extraordinary evocation of the moods of the inexorable rainforest, of families and of the secrets that can be hidden within them.
Sarah Armstrong has previously worked as a reporter on ABC Radio's AM, PM and The World Today. It was for a radio feature that Sarah won a Walkley award. She was also a researcher and producer on Foreign Correspondent.
Seven years ago, Sarah left the ABC and moved to a very wet rainforest valley close to Byron Bay. She now teaches writing and yoga workshops in Byron Bay - her website is www.sarah-armstrong.com.