THE SALT HOUSE

The Salt House, written by Pushcart Prize nominee Lisa Duffy, is a beautifully rendered story of one family's grief in the wake of a child's death. Beautifully written and breathlessly plotted, Duffy has created something undeniable in her debut. The compelling world of Alden, Maine is one that can't help but suck readers in.

In the coastal town of Alden, Maine, Hope Kelly writes her parenting column while her child naps. Twenty-two feet away, her daughter chokes on a necklace in her crib, taking her last breath without making a sound. Now, a year later, each member of the Kelly family navigates the world on their own private island of grief. Hope, unable to write, spends hours staring at the box that holds her daughter's ashes. She refuses to return to their beloved family home, The Salt House, because the memories she will find there threaten to pull her under. Jack works hauling lobsters to the point of physical exhaustion in attempt to avoid his crumbling marriage and to pay two mortgages that the family can't afford. Their surviving daughters, Jess and Kat, are still trying to come to terms with the loss of their sister while watching their parents implode.

When Jack's old rival, Ryland Finn, returns to town and threatens Jack's territory, something in Jack snaps. People die over cut traps in the harsh world of Maine lobstermen and, with the year he's had, Jack is in no mood to be trifled with. Now, he is going to fight back against something in his life that he can control, even as a secret from his past threatens to come out. Even worse, unbeknownst to Jack, his daughter, Jess, may be falling in love with Finn's son.

With Jack getting increasingly desperate, Jess trying to hide her growing feelings for Finn's son, Kat asking questions that her family doesn't want to answer, and Hope trying to prevent the memories of her daughter from pulling her under, the Kelly family is having a difficult summer to round out a difficult year. Somehow, the family knows that the only way to recover from their grief is to confront it head on by returning to The Salt House to face the memories.

Beautifully written and breathlessly plotted, Duffy has created something undeniable in her debut. The compelling world of Alden, Maine is one that can't help but suck readers in. Told in four alternating narratives, The Salt House centers around one pivotal summer in the life of the Kelly family, whose intertwined stories explore the confusing contradictions of love and the intricate puzzle that is grief.

Lisa Duffy received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts. Her short fiction was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and can be found in The Drum Literary Journal, So To Speak, The Breakwater Review, Let the Bucket Down and elsewhere. She is the founding editor of Roar Magazine, a journal supporting women in the arts. Lisa lives in the Boston area where she teaches literature through a prison rehabilitation program.