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THE FRENCH EROTIC NOVEL THAT CONQUERED THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS OF READERS WORLDWIDE
Benoîte Groult’s most pioneering and best-loved work follows the passionate relationship between a pair of mismatched lovers—a Parisian intellectual and a Breton fisherman—brought together by lust. Through love-letters and exotic encounters around the world, their life-long affair evolves, liberating them from the restrictions and disappointments of everyday life. Thirty years after its initial appearance, this beautifully written erotic evergreen feels as fresh as ever with its unconventional, lighthearted, and carefree picture of a female sexuality.
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Praise for Salt on my Skin
‘A leading French feminist and writer, Groult drew wide attention with this sexually daring novel’
The New York Times
‘A 1988 bestseller hailed for its frank descriptions of female sexual desire’
Variety Magazine
‘This book is delightful for its frequently beautiful prose, and appealing for how it deals with controversial subjects: abortion, female subjugation, and sexism in language.’
PW
‘A novel full of tenderness and sensuality, and at the same time a portrait of a free, independent woman who is true to her feelings.’
LOVELYBOOKS
‘This beautifully written, elegant, moving, and sensual novel convinces the reader that a love story like this is possible. I closed it with a tear in my eye. Halfway between a classic romance and erotica, without ever flowing over on to one side or the other, Salt on my Skin is a magnificent universe of wonderfully truthful and shameless words’
Livrogne
‘A literary masterpiece that shines with insolent brightness’
The Evening Standard
‘Benoîte Groult accepts the challenge of describing sex and pleasure from a female perspective—the difficulty that she consciously and conscientiously faces is to rewrite the precise manifestations of female desire with neither vulgarity nor ridicule’
CATHERINE SLAWY-SUTTON, in The Contemporary Novel in France
‘A frank, no-nonsense writer resolved to claim her “place on the battlefield of feminism.”’
Kirkus
‘Groult’s writing is alert, ironic, and frank’
L’Express
‘This is a novel about physical lust and female sexuality. It is a portrait of a modern and independent woman who embraces her sexuality, knows what she wants, and is not afraid to take it’
My Inner Goddess
‘Sexy, chatty, and full of shrewd insight’
Other Press
‘A hot passionate togetherness’
Free Verse in Review
‘A very ‘real’ story—full of real sex, not idealised ‘swinging from the chandeliers’ sex—that spans the years’
Anglophones.fr
‘Salt on my Skin belongs to the classics of erotic literature’
De Volkskrant
‘One of the most important writers of contemporary France’
Ze.nl
‘From today’s perspective, Salt on my Skin may seem like a chaste predecessor of “Fifty Shades of Gray”—however, this bestseller by Benoîte Groult likely kickstarted the whole women’s-book wave of the 1990s’
Die Welt
‘A hymn to desire, to physical passion, and to the exacerbation of the senses. Groult’s writing is sensual, realistic, and sensitive, with a wonderful sense of humor and lucid, fascinating reflections on love and old age’
Babelio
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BENOÎTE GROULT was born in Paris in 1920. She studied classical philology and then taught French Literature and Latin. Before becoming a writer in her 40s, she was a radio journalist and an editor at Elle and Marie-Claire. She is the author of six other novels, three of them written together with her sister, Flora. Groult’s bestseller, Salt on my Skin (‘Les Vaisseaux du Cœur’), published in 1988, was branded pornographic in some literary circles because of its vivid depictions of an extramarital affair and female sexuality. This pioneering text went on to raise a storm, win the hearts of millions, and was subsequently translated into 27 languages.
MO TEITELBAUM studied at London University, before abandoning her doctorate to focus on translating, writing, and researching ´lost´ histories. As well as Salt on my Skin, Teitelbaum has translated work by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean Renoir, and written many articles about strong women—including Madame Binh and Simone de Beauvoir—for the Sunday Times. Her book The Stylemakers is an in-depth study of the iconic French designer, Jean Michel Frank, and Eugenia Errazuriz, the Chilean woman who inspired him. She is currently working on the ‘lost’ history of Tota, Countess Cuevas de Vera, an Argentine feminist.
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AUTHOR
‘For my mother, writing Salt on my Skin was a real challenge. She wanted to describe, in a very crude way—without falling into ridicule or vulgarity—an intense carnal passion between two beings that were disparate in absolutely everything except sex. Treading the line between pornography and sickly sweet romance was risky, particularly since she wanted to talk about female pleasure in a way that nobody had done before. Especially not a woman.’
BLANDINE DE CAUNES, daughter of Benoîte Groult
TRANSLATOR
‘Groult’s is an intellectual’s humor, requiring, for example, a familiarity with medieval sexual terminology, of all things! There was also a trap to avoid: by choosing the right literal word, one too often lost her sub-text. Her true voice, unrelated to any sub-text, is her love of the ocean, her understanding of it, her expression of its power. That is what is so difficult for a translator to totally capture.’
PUBLISHER
‘Benoîte Groult’s writing still feels incredibly fresh and modern. Three decades after the first publication, her novel still—or should I say again?—manages to shed new light on sexuality and the female body. With her own particular wisdom and great sense of humor, her free spirit breathes from the book’s pages.’
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BENOÎTE GROULT
Salt on my Skin
FOREWORD BY FAY WELDON
Translated by Mo Teitelbaum
