Salt Publishing

A disillusioned, drug-soaked intellectual is escaping ‘The Heat’ – both literal and metaphorical – by relocating to a new town in the North. What follows is a surreal immersion into the region’s club culture, where fevered dancing, shadowy relationships, and the rituals of nightlife blur the boundaries between reality and delirium. Employment as a croupier leads to encounters with a cast of eccentric figures, none more vivid than Christine – a ‘Superstar Croupier’ whose fierce individuality, joy and pain mark her as the radiant centre of the novel. Set in Leeds during the height of the Northern Soul explosion in the seventies, There’s No ‘F’ in Wonderful is at once hilariously funny and deeply unsettling, exploring the magical yet disorienting passage between adolescence and adulthood—a time when anything seems possible, even as the world insists otherwise. Broady has long written for those who remain irrepressibly young in heart and spirit. With There’s No ‘F’ in Wonderful, he delivers a strange, glorious celebration of resilience, joy, and defiant living. Or as the book itself insists: Live! Live! Live!

Siberia 1833. Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing. The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.

Wills gives readers the exceptional at the heart of daily life, invites us to suspend disbelief, enable the surreal. She begins Making the Wedding Dress with a quote from a handbook on sewing and asks what can be fixed, what does it mean to make a daughter’s wedding dress. The collection fans out to explore bullying, money, trade, rats and sinkholes. A third section questions how humans relate to other species, speculates on a worm's opinion of people, the communal life of starlings. The book ends on ideas of exits and entrances, home, absences within a family and the fragility of care. Making the Wedding Dress makes many unexpected connections, moving from sauna to plum tree, to a luxury yacht cruising off Brighton beach. It asks what crows think of humans, it urges its readers to question what is normal. Jackie Wills’ six previous collections have taken on big issues but her poems are always grounded. Her poems have been described as warm and witty, satirical, feminist and unputdownable. She starts with the mundane, then exaggerates – a list of the many words used to describe a woman, a sequence of short, impressionist poems on the surreality of menopause. Liz Lochhead described her 1995 debut, Powder Tower (Arc 1995), as “full of fabulous and exact fictions about ordinary family life”. Writer Robert Macfarlane described her second book Party (Leviathan 2000) as “a very fine collection indeed”.

A woman with a successful career in child protection is floored by her husband’s sudden death; a retired civil servant smothers his wife, but can’t go through with their pact; a teacher fleeing a disastrous school trip finds himself – literally – in a dark wood. Pascal famously said we shall die alone. But there are always others left behind to grieve, to cheer, to feel guilt, relief or laughter, because we are human, whether we like it or not. In these stories, a dozen characters find at least a dozen ways to live by facing death – their own or that of those they love – in familiar worlds shot through with a strange absurdity. A man with cancer is employed to smoke by a character from a novel who may never have existed; an historian finds a love he hopes will last beyond the grave, even if it isn’t his; a former judge dispenses justice in a prison camp; a randomly-selected Prime Minister confronts the biggest life-or-death decision she – or anyone – will ever have to take. A Day Like Any Other explores death – natural, assisted, promised and unexpected – with compassion, wit, a steady gaze and a desire to confront the challenge we mostly prefer to avoid: why live at all? It is the perfect collection for anyone who’s going to die one day.

Fiction to look out for in 2026 —The ObserverHe is a boy growing up in rural Pennsylvania under the eye of a brutal, brilliant father. He is a young man at college, enduring the choices that have been made for him and finding brightness and beauty all the same. He is a soldier in a dreadful war who – despite that awful conflict – finds the extraordinary woman who was the love of his life, and her tale inextricably twines with his. He is an engineer who builds one of the great wonders of the modern world. His name is Washington Roebling. His life holds the possible and the impossible, what could be grasped and what could only be longed for. History holds one truth. Here is another. Forged in a brutal age, duty-bound to execute his domineering father’s vision of the life he must live, he joins forces with his brilliant wife Emily to overcome myriad obstacles to fulfilling his obligation, chief among them his own yearning to shed the burden of achieving a dream that was never his own. This is a book of growth, yearning, about the price of achievement, about the road not taken. Beads on the necklace of a life are strung together to create a composite portrait not only of Washington but of those who loved him: Emily of course, but Max too – a young man whose spirit will haunt him for the rest of his life. Here duty and desire, love and obligation, intersect and contradict each other. With subtle narrative and powerful, vivid prose it offers an invitation to enter a complex world, so that readers may see their own histories, their own choices, their own possibilities, mirrored in this compelling text. Wash is a richly imagined and intimate book about a singular life – built from as many intricately linked elements as the iconic Brooklyn Bridge that is its hero's lasting legacy.

”This is Flusfeder’s masterpiece.” —Julie MyersonNew York City 1970: Emma Hoffman is the great party-giver of the Upper West Side. She’s a writer, wife, mother, hostess, guest, trying to excel and trying to find a way through the agonies and complacencies of it all – because at any moment something might fall, perhaps herself. Four years later, her son is going out alone into the streets of Manhattan on his eleventh birthday, to make himself new, and prove to be worthy of the birthday letters he continues to receive from his lost, soaring mother. Something Might Fall is a kind of historical fiction, set in a moment when women’s literary voices were being heard in a new, confessional, intimate way, but the conditions of those writers’ relationships and their domestic obligations were not so different from those of their mothers. The first part, which swoops and stutters between Emma Hoffman and her husband, Dr Nicholas Sawyer, is about a woman at the edge of herself and is also an account of a marriage, embodying two consciousnesses in a mutual misunderstanding and disappointment and hope and sometimes magic. The second part is limited to just one point of view, of their son Nicky, the living in aftermath, exploring Manhattan on his own on the occasion of his eleventh birthday.

A masterclass in atmospheric suspense and domestic uneaseIt begins as an ordinary day of frayed nerves and suburban fractiousness. Following a sharp argument with his wife, Graham sets out across London with his young daughter, Jasmine. It is a journey born of a need for space – on the surface, a simple drive to clear the air. But as they move through the city, the familiar begins to feel inexplicably foreign. The motorways are tightening. The air is changing. On every screen, in every shop window, a recurring image of a remote island haunts the broadcast – an image that pulls Graham back toward a childhood he has tried to outrun. As the horizon darkens and the path home becomes increasingly uncertain, Graham is forced to navigate the shifting boundary between a father’s protective instinct and a world that is rapidly losing its grip on the known. The Island is a devastatingly controlled novella from one of the UK’s finest poets. It is a story of what remains when the structures of the everyday fall away: the memories we cannot escape, and the desperate, quiet love between a father and his child.

For the first time, this volume gathers together all Tobias Hill’s poems from his four full-length collections in one beautiful and collectable paperback edition, introduced by Maura Dooley. The Collected Poems marks an important moment in British poetry, drawing together Hill’s work from his Eric Gregory Award-winning debut, Year of the Dog (1995), to the bestselling Nocturne in Chrome & Sunset Yellow (2006). Hill’s celebrated ‘urban pastoral’ was decadent yet austere, driven through radical visual desire. Here in one volume we can see the extent of his imaginative journey, travelling through towns and cityscapes, presenting a simmering world of captured lives, haunting, but filled with charm and wit. The early work is dominated by Japan, where Hill lived for two years, yet it is his beloved London that becomes the imaginative centre of his work, filled with the sensuous intensity of that great city. Tobias Hill was selected as one of the country’s Next Generation poets in 2004, shortlisted for the 2004 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and named by the TLS as one of the best young writers in the country.

The Tribe is the epic tale of a family and its history and a family in history. The Carraches are a powerful Sephardic dynasty in the cosmopolitan city of Salonica during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire. After the Greek annexation of the city, they settle in France until, in 1940, the Nazi Occupation sends some into hiding, some into flight and others into camps. In the early 1960s, the survivors and their children confront the family’s past, with long hidden secrets uncovered and deep-seated conflicts exposed, even as the Eichmann trial forces the world at large to confront the full enormity of the Holocaust. The Tribe crosses cultures and continents in its exploration of family, race, nation and empire. As the central characters journey from adolescence through early adulthood to late middle age, they experience first loves, political and sexual awakenings, artistic triumphs, religious pressures, marital struggles, dynastic rivalries, brutal persecution, resilience and liberation, before, helped by their children, they finally achieve a degree of reconciliation both with one another and the city of their birth.

The best fiction to read this year —New StatesmanOur 25 most anticipated fiction books for 2026 —Shortlist MagazineMy Bags Are Big, a darkly comic satire of wealth, reinvention, and regret – set against the surreal backdrop of Dubai. ‘Is it merely a long con? Is Bitcoin just a mighty payday, or have I gatecrashed one of the great moments of history? Up there with the enslavement of fire, the invention of writing, the power of flight. A moment everyone will be pointing to for thousands of years, as long as there are people to point. And Dan was there. Bitcoin rulz okay?’With Fischer’s trademark wit, philosophical flair, and scathing insight into the absurdities of modern life, My Bags Are Big is a brilliant satire of masculinity, memory, and the costs of pretending you’ve moved on.

The Best New Fiction —The Mail on SundayDazzling Debuts to kickstart 2026 —Daily MailA quiet neighbourhood of London is about to be shattered. This is a story about people coming together and looking out for each other. No person is an island, including Wilf Kelly, its hero. Many neighbours help him out on the quiet. Also on the quiet, Wilf tames a wild fox and goes on a voyage of self-discovery. Normally, little happens in these mixed streets of families, retirees, podcasters and gossips. A little group create a community garden. An ageing journalist writes nature columns. A left-wing Scotsman longs for the glory days when he interviewed Castro. A disabled professor plans a book clearance. Supine Mario takes far too many drugs. And Wilf Kelly decides to get a fox as a pet. When Wilf is accused of an awful crime, he becomes the target of a police and media firestorm. It’s a drama that galvanises not just the local community but people from all around London. A superbly written debut novel with a big heart, that will make you laugh, cry and remind you of the power of community spirit.

The definitive showcase of the year’s finest British short stories‘Bravo to Salt’s beacon of delight and intrigue – its annual collection of the UK’s best short stories, from established and emerging voices.’ —Duncan MinshullNow relaunched for a new era, Best British Short Stories returns with a bold new look and a renewed commitment to celebrating the art of the short story. As we enter our fifteenth volume, this much-loved annual collection continues to be the go-to anthology for readers seeking the most exciting and diverse voices in contemporary British fiction.Assembled by series editor Nicholas Royle, Best British Short Stories 2025 presents a stellar selection of stories first published in 2024, drawn from magazines, journals, anthologies, collections, chapbooks, and online. Whether you’re a devoted follower or discovering the series for the first time, this new edition reaffirms our mission to champion storytelling in all its forms.‘If the latest iteration of Salt’s Best British Short Stories collection is anything to go by then the genre remains in safe hands.’ —Lawrence Foley, TLSFeaturing stories by: David Bevan, Rose Biggin, Christopher Burns, Ian Critchley, Pippa Goldschmidt, Linden Hibbert, Hannah Hoare, Catrin Kean, Roger Luckhurst, Baret Magarian, Wyl Menmuir, Alison Moore, Okechukwu Nzelu, Simon Okotie, Imogen Reid, C. D. Rose, Iain Sinclair, Elizabeth Stott, Mark Valentine, and Naomi Wood.

From The Castle to the Hovel is a selection of Nicholas Lezard’s wildly popular, long-running column for the New Statesman, covering the years 2017–2021, when he was kicked out of London, relocated to Scotland, and then got kicked out of there, and finally settled in Brighton. This will be more than a selection of columns: there will be additional material which will illuminate several of the questions raised by the pieces on their original appearance. There will be some gossip. Look on it as the Director’s Cut.Subjects include:HomelessnessHeartbreakMassive cash flow problemsBeaversLockdown sex in Durham, of all placesA deep-seated sense of absurdityGeneral grumpinessStaying in bed all dayAlcoholic consumption on a heroic scaleFreezing Scottish houses with faulty wood-burning stovesJackdawsTreesThe middle of fucking nowhere without a phone signalAnd much, much more!

‘Once she had thought of them, their love, as a fortress that nothing, not giants nor dragons nor men with fists and minds of gore could tear down. She realises now, that their love is malleable, mouldable, breakable. As soft as dreams.’Summer in Worcestershire, 1577. Eliza Litton, a talented artist, is in love with childhood friend, Francis. But her tyrannical father, who rules the household with insults and fists, has other ideas. As summer comes to an end, Francis vanishes after a drunken night at the inn and Eliza’s father forces her to marry a gentleman, Edmund. Thrown into a new, unfamiliar life with her husband who appears distant and cold, Eliza cannot tear herself from the memory of Francis. Yet her feelings for Edmund soften with time; he presents a life to her better than she ever dreamed. He provides her a safety she never had beneath her father’s roof and encourages her to paint, to pursue the things she loves.As she begins to fall for Edmund, Francis is adrift on his own voyage, doing all he can to survive, fixated on returning to Eliza. But as Eliza grows closer to Edmund, she uncovers a deceit she never imagined, causing her to question her own loyalties and commit her own betrayals. After everything, who will Eliza be? And what choices will she make? The Marriage Contract vividly portrays life in the precarious and unforgiving Elizabethan era, exploring love’s many forms; how we can betray the ones we love, and how we can find forgiveness; and explores a woman’s fight to follow her desires and find her autonomy.

Have you ever wanted a compelling reason to listen to more music? Sound Advice invites readers on a voyage of self-discovery that uniquely combines the immersive joy of listening to pop music with the desire to implement simple, practical yet inspiring lifestyle changes designed to help restore balance and build healthy habits into busy lives. Drawing on top 10 UK chart hits from the 1980s – pop music’s ‘Golden Age’ – the book explores and analyses relatable themes that resonate with everyday life: education, friendships, dreaming, youthfulness, truthfulness, love and relationships (marriage and divorce), health and fitness, loneliness, mistakes, worry, self-reliance, passion, fortitude, work, ageing and more. Each piece of lyrical advice is tested for soundness through the lenses of history, science, literature, philosophy and psychology.Discover some unlikely connections, such as those between ABBA and Einstein, Iron Maiden and Shakespeare, and Bob Marley and Darwin. Using these songs as catalysts, prompts or aides-mémoire, Sound Advice offers some profound insights into life that will encourage readers to incorporate beneficial behaviours into their daily routines.

From the septuagenarian prostitute exposed in a tabloid sting to the Queen Bee of a local dramatic society upstaged by her cleaner; from the nine-year-old girl caught in the crossfire of her parents’ divorce to the widow stranded on an Antarctic cruise during the COVID pandemic; from the doctor’s wife confronting the enormity of her husband’s online dealings to the forgotten musical comedy star yearning to return to the spotlight; these twelve captivating and compelling stories explore a diverse range of female experience. By turn humorous and poignant, whimsical and provocative, they make for richly rewarding reading.