The Salt Roads

By: Nalo Hopkinson

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 1804, shortly before the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue is renamed Haiti, a group of women gather to bury a stillborn baby. Led by a lesbian healer and midwife named Mer, the women's lamentations inadvertently release the dead infant's "unused vitality" to draw Ezili - the Afro-Caribbean goddess of sexual desire and love - into the physical world.   

As Ezili explores her newfound powers, she travels across time and space to inhabit the midwife's body - as well as those of Jeanne, a mixed-race dancer and the mistress of Charles Baudelaire living in 1880s Paris, and Meritet, an enslaved Greek-Nubian prostitute in ancient Alexandria.   

Bound together by Ezili and "the salt road" of their sweat, blood, and tears, the three women struggle against a hostile world, unaware of the goddess's presence in their lives. Despite her magic, Mer suffers as a slave on a sugar plantation until Ezili plants the seeds of uprising in her mind. Jeanne slowly succumbs to the ravages of age and syphilis when her lover is unable to escape his mother's control. And Meritet, inspired by Ezili, flees her enslavement and makes a pilgrimage to Egypt, where she becomes known as Saint Mary.

©2003 Nalo Hopkinson (P)2018 Tantor

Salt Roads

I was disappointed in this story. The narration was excellent. I love this particular narrator's beautiful voice and inflections, outstanding! But the story itself was difficult to follow and left me wondering what she was really trying to say. I often struggled to get through, and then I'd think okay I got it....but not really.

A hard read, but worth it.

If you are looking for light brain candy, this book is not for you. I can't emphasize that enough; it would be like picking up The Color Purple and expecting a romp. But Oh my goodness, if you have some fortitude, Nalo Hopkinson's The Salt Road repays you richly.
The world of this book is deep and nuanced, filled with strong women in terrible circumstances, a nascent goddess coming into her own, history that many white people are unaware of, and a writing voice that seduces, shocks, terrifies and comforts by turns.
Bahni Turpinns performance of this work is exquisite, adding harmonics of richness to the banquet of writing skill on display here. She catches each character's individual circumstances with precision and passion. This narration is a great example of what a good narrator brings to a good story.
I'll be looking for more of Hopkinson's work, after a break to read something mindless and fun.

such an incredible book

A must-read book with afro-futurist, historical and magical realist themes. If you enjoy this book, you will also enjoy her book The Midnight Robber Queen.

This book takes the reader/listener on a ride

This book really allows the reader/listener to understand what the mind of a person in bondage goes through. The narrator really brought the pages to life! I am a new fan of Nalo Hopkinson because of this work. It gave me a satisfaction I have not had in a long time.

Another brilliant Nalo book

Nalo's poetic journeys are unmatched. I loved each character; they were nuanced, difficult, understandable and had their own brand of beauty. This particular journey is irreverent - it is boldly sexual, emotional, and desiring. It mixes personal aspiration with the political aspirations that have transcended time as we know it. Fittingly, Nalo bypasses linearity and forges connections through other, more elemental aspects: salt, water and wanting. The performance was great. The story was the right kind of difficult. The climax was godly (in more ways than one). It leaves me hoping for a new Nalo novel soon...

Difficult to convey

I selected the book because I needed to expand beyond my usual reads.

It took me until around chapter 63 to really "get" where the story path was headed and I'm glad I stuck with it.

The characters are beautifully written and performed.

Confusing

Very hard to follow. The individual stories were good once you kinda get what’s going on but it takes a long time to get there.

Strong Female Characters

I loved the characters and separate storylines but thought it was too much and too long for one book. Would have been stronger if it was three different novels.

Too Strange

As much as I love just about everything Bahni Turpin reads, this story was just too strange for me to follow. I really wanted to
understand the strange story unfolding, it was just too difficult to really enjoy. Sorry Ms Turpin, you lost me on this one.

Frustrating but enjoyable

I enjoyed Bahni Turpin's narration and the story but the book was hard to get into. It took listening well into the book for me to fully understand what was going on. The fantasy aspect could have been explored more. I appreciated the historical fiction aspect to the story the most.

Amazing!

I loved this story and the narration is really special. I enjoyed Midnight Robber but found it hard to follow. Despite having 3 very different strands, this novel was easier. The content about slavery in Haiti (Saint Domingue) was shocking and hard to listen to, but presented well. The different stories interwove really nicely.