'Wickedly clever prose and a sense of humour that seems to loom up like a character in itself' – M John Harrison, Guardian

In her brilliantly inventive and haunting debut collection of stories, Julia Armfield explores the body, mapping the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge.

Teenagers develop ungodly appetites, a city becomes insomniac overnight, and bodies are diligently picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and sleepy sea-side towns are invaded and transformed, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to its inhabitants. Blurring the mythic and the gothic with the everyday, Salt Slow considers characters in motion – turning away, turning back or simply turning into something new entirely.

Winner of The White Review Short Story Prize 2018, Armfield is a writer of sharp, lyrical prose and tilting dark humour – Salt Slow marks the arrival of an ambitious and singular new voice.

'Salt Slow is exemplary. A distinct new gothic, melancholy, powerful and poised.' – China Miéville, author of The City & The City

'Armfield is an enormous, gut-wrenching talent.' – Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under