Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
A Best Book of the Year (The Guardian, Vanity Fair)
A Most Anticipated Book (Esquire, Time, Buzzfeed, Refinery29)
"Both delightful and discomfiting." ―The New Yorker
“A darkly exciting debut…Wickedly clever prose and a sense of humour that seems to loom up like a character itself, having been lying in wait in a corner all along.” ―The Guardian
“Electric…Simultaneously attractive and repulsive, the stories make for a chilling but hugely satisfying reading experience.” ―Vanity Fair
"Reading this collection is the only thing you need to do right now. Reading this collection is the only thing you ever need to do. Armfield is an enormous, gut-wrenching talent." - Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under, shortlisted for Booker prize 2018
"Unafraid to venture beyond realism’s limits, Julia Armfield refashions our contemporary existence as an eerie, care-worn dreamworld, taking our quotidian anxieties and desires and handing them back to us empathetically remade. ’The Great Awake’ is an oneiric delight, and Armfield is a significant, exciting talent." - Sam Byers, author of Perfidious Albion
"Julia Armfield has created a portrait of urban ennui that unfolds through an impressively sustained conceit. It’s a bold feat of the imagination which, despite being so elaborate, never feels contrived. Her work has a timelessness to it, and a generosity of emotion that’s brave and affecting. There’s an intensity of voice driving [these stories], as well as a strong visceral quality that adds to the effect." - Chloe Aridjis, author of Book of Clouds
“salt slow is exemplary. A distinct new gothic, melancholy, powerful, and poised.” - China Miéville, author of The City & The City
“These are brilliantly addictive, barbed, illusive stories. Armfield creates a cleverly unsettling, iridescent world that we are all the better for entering.” - Irenosen Okojie, author of Speak Gigantular
“Visceral, fierce and beautifully unsettling, Armfield’s writing has an astonishing power. This collection haunted me with its brilliance.” - Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory
“Eerie, otherworldly…For fans of Carmen Maria Machado, Sophie Mackintosh, and Megan Hunter.” - Elle (UK)
“Thrilling . . . A writer whose next move you wouldn’t want to miss.” Observer
“Wickedly clever prose and a sense of humour that seems to loom up like a character in itself” M John Harrison, Guardian
“Truly dazzling . . . so subtle, intelligent and imaginative.” Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman
“This debut collection is both wild and wonderful, packed with mythical transformations that take place in the most ordinary of contemporary settings . . . vivid . . . visceral . . . marvellous.” Daily Mail
“These exquisitely written stories are like the quietly surreal lovechild of Anne Michaels and Julio Cortazar. Both moving and poetic, salt slow introduces Julia Armfield as a writer to watch and greatly admire.” Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti
“Remember the name Julia Armfield as this will be the year that salt slow bubbles under then pops up everywhere on best-of lists and literary prizes . . . Visceral, perturbing and exhilarating.” Stylist
“Writers should take risks and Julia Armfield does this fearlessly with stories that unnerve and delight in equal measure. There are echoes of Leonora Carrington and Carmen Maria Machado, but Armfield’s distinct voice is her own: singular, visceral and eerie. A hugely impressive first collection.” Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations
“Visceral, fierce and beautifully unsettling, Armfield’s writing has an astonishing power. This collection haunted me with its brilliance.” -- Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory