The Gilly Salt Sisters

How it reads

The Gilly Salt Sisters is contemporary fiction (family saga, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a rural setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are family, secrets and love. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 370 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.