The Salt King with Natasha Pulley
Thu 03 Sep 2026
7:00pm at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, 14-15 John St, Bath, BA1 2JL
All tickets include 15% off any books purchased on the night, a glass of wine or soft drink, author talk, Q&A and signing.
Other ways to book:
Email books@mrbsemporium.com, call 01225 331155 or pop into the shop at 14-15 John Street, Bath. BA1 2JL.
Bestselling author and friend of the shop, Natasha Pulley, joins us this autumn for the release of her new genre-disrupting novel, The Salt King.
The author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Kingdoms, and The Mars House, returns with a new end-of-the-world thriller, The Salt King, a gorgeous and sinister new fusion of folk horror and biblical lore. Incredible, impossible, miracles are being performed in the tiny cult of Hreadwater, and Jesuit priest Avelyn Bracken is despatched to investigate.
Can’t make it to the event? Order a signed and dedicated copy here.
About the book:
Avelyn Brocken is a Jesuit at the Vatican. Originally from the salt mining town of Hreodwater in East Anglia, his only ambition is never to go back. But when rumours of miracles being performed there are followed by a bizarre video showing that someone trying to leave then enclave has been turn to salt, the Vatican foreign ministry summons him.
The isolated Hreodwater salt mine has its own culture, its own language, and its own faith – the worship of the Salt King, the sleeping god of the mine. Any investigation into their miracles requires someone who understands all three. Avelyn must go.
Returning to Hreodwater, with its unique salt light, and ability to destroy anything electronic within minutes, is personally challenging for Avelyn, who escaped the cult – and the Salt King – as a child. But eruptions of salt are happening all over the world. People are being turned into salt statues without warning, and their frequency is increasing.
If these are miracles, the church must do something. And it they are not – if the ancient, and frightening, Salt King is returning – then Avelyn may be the only one who has a chance of stopping it…
‘The Salt King is a multi-genre marvel, a concoction that’s equal parts adventure tale, tender-hearted romance, and apocalyptic vision‘ – Helene Wecker, author of The Golem and the Djinni Trilogy
About the author:
Natasha Pulley is the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Bedlam Stacks, and quite a lot more. An international bestseller, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, the Locus Awards, and remained on the Sunday Times bestseller list for much of summer 2016. The Bedlam Stacks was longlisted for the Walter Scott Award and shortlisted for the Encore Award.
Natasha has lived in Japan as a Daiwa Scholar, as well as China and Peru. She was a 2016 Gladstone Writer in Residence, and she teaches Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.