Read the first two chapters of The Salt Madonna

Catherine Noske’s debut novel, The Salt Madonna, is the moody Australian gothic you’ve been waiting for! The story follows Hannah Mulvey who fled her island home as a teenager. But as her stubborn mother lays dying, Hannah decides it’s time to finally come home to take up a teaching post in the tiny rundown school.

Although Hannah cannot pinpoint how or when the strangeness beings, something odd and intangible threatens her small community. A girl disappears, the children start whispering strange rumours, women begin gathering in odd groups at strange hours. And then the miracles begin…

A remote community, a moment of madness and a blistering imagination of truth. Start reading Catherine Noske’s brilliant exploration of power and femininity with the first two chapters below!

‘Tense, original and lyrically told; this is a gripping story of a community spellbound by collective mania and the search for what cannot be found…’ Gail Jones

‘Catherine Noske’s debut novel grapples with questions of familial obligation, complicity, remorse and the fallibility of memory…The Salt Madonna will appeal to readers who enjoyed Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s Beautiful Revolutionary.’ Books+Publishing