Salt signs 'monumental' debut about family dysfunction

Salt is to publish a "monumental tale of family dysfunction" by Eleanor Anstruther.

The publisher acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Jenny Savill at Andrew Nurnberg Associates to Anstruther’s debut A Perfect Explanation.

Exploring themes of ownership and abandonment, A Perfect Explanation is a fictionalised account of the true story of Enid Campbell, granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll, who sold her son to her sister for £500.

Interweaving one significant day in 1964 with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation "gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition, to fight, to lose, to fight again," said the publisher. "In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains, only people misunderstood. Here, in the pages of this extraordinary book where the unspoken is conveyed with vivid simplicity, lies a story that will leave you reeling."

Jen Hamilton-Emery, publisher of Salt, said: "It is rare to be delighted, disturbed and dismayed within the course of one exquisite sentence. This beautiful, coruscating true story uncovers wealth, torment and neglect amid kidnap and court cases, divorce and dissipation. No reader will be left untouched. It is, quite simply, majestic."

Anstruther added: "To be published by Salt is to stand amongst some of the finest authors working today. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I heard I was to join them. I couldn’t be more thrilled, or proud that they believe in me."

A Perfect Explanation will be published as a paperback original in March 2019, priced at £9.99.