Tasting Salt

Viking Australia - ISBN 0670873594

No 1 Bestseller : First published 1997

"Just as the great oceans have but one taste, the taste of salt, so too there is but one taste fundamental to all true teachings of the Way, and this is the taste of freedom." Buddha

Work and love are at the heart of this wise, optimistic novel.

Around two immensely likeable women – Cordelia and Laurie – circulate noisy, opinionated friends, children, siblings, most of whom share their fascination with place, with creativity, with richly varied human relationships, and with vital, exhilarating questions about the "taste of freedom" that underpins everything.

Cordelia is newly widowed. Laurie is the mother of two lively children. Each has known and lost love. Each is cautious. Yet the gift of their deepening affection, and their willingness to accept the challenge of that, allows them to find a new appreciation of life, and new meaning in ageing.

From this passionate and creative friendship, and through its intense, lyrical conversations, emerges a work of warmth, insight, and lasting generosity of spirit.

Tasting Salt

Penguin Books Australia - Paperback - ISBN 0140275878

"A subtle, gentle, sexually universal book" The Mail on Sunday (UK)

"A fine illuminating novel....deeply imagined characters" The Age (Australia)

"A celebration of women befriending women, it harks back to Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook,,,The book is optimistic, a meditation on the Buddhist teaching that freedom, like salt is an essential element and within the character's grasp" The Independent (UK)

"A beautiful book – poised yet questioning, sympathetic, wise" The Listener (NZ)

"Dowrick is one of a handful of writers who moves easily between fiction and non-fiction" Waikato Times (NZ)

"Extraordinary insight" Canberra Sunday Times (Aus)

 

Tasting Salt

The Women's Press Ltd - ISBN 0704345544

The No. 1 Australian Bestseller

"A subtle, gentle, sexually universal book" The Mail on Sunday (UK)

"A celebration of women befriending women, it harks back to Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook... The book is optimistic, a meditation on the Buddhist teaching that freedom, like salt is an essential element and within the character's grasp" The Independent (UK)

"Beautifully written, peopled by memorable, deliciously human characters" Gay Community News (UK)

"A subtle, gentle, sexually universal book" Mail on Sunday (UK)

"Exemplary perceptions about ageing, experience and friendship…wise and encouraging" Sunday Telegraph (UK)