Salt Upon the Water by Lyn Dickens

1836. At the edge of empire, a woman arrives to claim her past. And her future.

Clarissa FitzRoy, a spirited woman of mixed heritage, has crossed oceans to confront Colonel William Light, the Surveyor-General of South Australia.

Bound by a shared history of dispossession by the British East India Company and haunted by secrets, Clarissa and Light must grapple with truths neither is prepared to face.

Set against the stark beauty of the South Australian coast, Salt Upon the Water is a powerful story of love, identity, and resistance. As Clarissa seeks connection with her Asian family and Light is forced to confront his complicity in colonial violence, both are caught in a tide of prejudice, race, and power that will shape the course of their lives.

Sweeping from the pleasure gardens of London to the canals of Venice, the streets of Calcutta to the island of Penang, Lyn Dickens’ award-winning novel blends magical realism with historical depth, offering a luminous reimagining of Australia’s past. A groundbreaking, poetic debut, this is a story of reckoning, resilience, and the courage to reclaim one’s voice.

Clarissa FitzRoy, a spirited woman of mixed heritage, has crossed oceans to confront Colonel William Light, the Surveyor-General of South Australia. Bound by a shared history of dispossession by the British East India Company and haunted by secrets, Clarissa and Light must grapple with truths neither is prepared to face.

About the Author: Lyn Dickens is a writer, editor, and academic living on unceded Kaurna land. Her debut novel Salt Upon the Water was the winner of the 2024 Arts South Australia Wakefield Press Unpublished Manuscript Award. Of mixed Singaporean Peranakan Chinese and Anglo Celtic Australian heritage, Lyn is the Managing Editor and Co-Founder of The Saltbush Review. Lyn has been shortlisted and longlisted for a variety of awards including the Deborah Cass Prize, the Lucy Cavendish Prize and the Richell Prize, and she was the winner of a Write It Fellowship with Penguin Random House. Lyn’s writing has been published in Australia, the UK, and the USA, appearing in journals such as Kill Your Darlings, ArtsHub, Liminal, and Mascara Literary Review. She has a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Sydney and she was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge. Lyn is a member of the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide, where she is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing. After many years in Sydney, Cambridge, and London, Lyn now lives in Adelaide with her husband and two children.

06 Oct 2025
 

Salt Upon the Water by Lyn Dickens ISBN 9781923388208