The Salt of Broken Tears

by Michael Meehan

The arrival of a young woman on a remote family farm in outback Australia turns the lives of its inhabitants upside down, a situation that becomes further complicated by her subsequent disappearance, leaving behind only a bloodied dress, sparking the young heir to the farm to undertake an epic odyssey in search of the truth. A first novel. 25,000 first printing.

Genres: Novels, 20th Century, Historical

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Michael Meehan’s novels –The Salt of Broken Tears, Deception, Below the Styx and Stormy Weather – have been shortlisted for and won many awards and have also been published internationally. He is an Emeritus Professor at Deakin University and was for many years the chair of Adelaide Writers Week. He currently lives in Adelaide, South Australia

Reviews

[James Marinero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book required work, but was rewarding for me. I was on my boat and had worked through my pile of thrillers and crime fiction and was desperate for something to read. Not yet a Kindle user (I just love the feel of a real book), I found this tucked away at the back of one of my bookshelves. It was not one that would have instantly appealed to me.

It's many years since I read Grapes of Wrath, and there were echoes of that book here.

Whilst it required work to read, I did look forward to picking it up in the evening. I like to learn something new from books and this delivered, even leading me to look up maps of Australia. Withough giving anything away, when I checked the map I felt that the lad who was the main character was a bit like the lead ant in 'Antz' (Woody Allen voiceover) in the geographic (not neurotic) sense.

Not a 4* for me, probably shading 3.5* and worth the effort, taking me out of my reading comfort zone.

[zespri · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Australian outback road trip with a difference. Written in beautiful prose, we journey through the Australian outback with a young boy, in search of answers to a violent act on his family farm. The whole family are affected, and the trip brings answers, but it is the prose that made me give the book 5 stars - I loved it.

[Tasha Lebow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book moved me with its lyrical, rich descriptions of such a stark, barren world, and its touching insights coaxed from hard, narrow lives. It put me There, in the heat, dust and isolation of Australia’s salt pans and deserts and pulled me through a difficult tale that I will never forget. A haunting, melodic read.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose is beautiful, but it was a difficult read. I am still not certain what happened at the end.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my reading journal, dated 29 October 1999
I have never read anything like this before: it's magnificent.

The Salt of Broken Tears is the story of a boy who sets out across the dry and barren land beyond the Mallee, to search for the missing Cabel Singh the hawker, and for the girl Eileen who has disappeared from his home.

It's an epic journey.  The reader moves with this child (who is perhaps twelve or thirteen) across a landscape so eternal and vast that I cannot fathom it.  Meehan writes prose like poetry, with fluid images of trees and salt plains and rotting logs all tumbling into one another, not in coarse monotony but in a beauty diverse and endlessly frightening.  A boy! And a boy not lost in this extreme landscape, but a boy who is purposeful as no adults are, intent on his mission.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/11/09/t...

[Brook Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title suggests, it's a sad tale, in fact it's very melancholy. Some bits were very lovely, mostly the descriptions of the aussie bush, with its harshness.