Natasha Pulley is the internationally bestselling author of seven books, including The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Mars House, and The Hymn to Dionysus. She has won a Betty Trask Award and been shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award and the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize.

"The Salt King is a multi-genre marvel, a concoction that's equal parts adventure tale, tender-hearted romance, and apocalyptic vision. With enviable dexterity Pulley mixes religion, science, and magic, never letting up the tension as her story sweeps us around the globe. But it's her characters who truly bring the book to life, their voices droll and earnest, melancholy and hilarious. I guarantee you'll be thinking about this book long after you turn the final page!" --Helene Wecker, New York Times bestselling author of The Golem and the Jinni Trilogy

"Pulley cleverly reckons with thorny questions of truth versus belief, faith versus institutions, and whether it's better to navigate the unimaginable alone or with a companion whose very presence you doubt . . . Though the novel deals in prophecy and cataclysm, it champions free will down to its very last moments. Gripping and heartfelt, this prismatic novel is more than worth its salt." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"In its scale and its eagerness to grapple with foundational questions about God and belief, The Salt King might be her most intricate and epic work yet." --Publishers Weekly

"Pulley has created a sprawling, slow-burn, and fantastical apocalyptic tale." --Booklist

"This garden path of a novel shifts back and forth seamlessly from fantasy-mystery to subtle romance to a reflection on how frameworks shape reality, without dropping tension . . . A compelling religious alternate-history mystery about isolation, spectrums of religious and romantic love, and beliefs defining and dividing community." --Library Journal

"[Features] Natasha Pulley's signature delicacy in portraying the slow growth of queer love." --CrimeReads. "20 Speculative Thrillers to Get You Through the Rest of 2026"

"Pulley does so many things well, and The Salt King is no exception. Her writing style is light and witty, even when the subject is serious . . . There are significant and weighty discussions about belief, history, linguistics, and meaning, yet nothing feels too dense to contemplate. From the bird's-eye view, the novel is an intricate thought experiment. As a reader, it's a story as simple and tight as a salt crystal." --A Cineaste's Bookshelf

"Pulley brings out her favorite elements-palace intrigue, gallant lovers, masks, transformations, ambiguity, automata-and twists them into mesmerizing patterns . . . This love story is witty, bittersweet, surprising, and compellingly readable." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review on THE HYMN TO DIONYSUS

"A queer love story wrapped up in questions about the end of empire and the need for revelry-quite fitting for 2025." --Town & Country on THE HYMN TO DIONYSUS

"Delightful . . . moves as nimbly as its ballet-dancer hero . . . pivoting toward something that's both nuanced and fresh. The result is both an epic love story and a deft political thriller." --The Washington Post on THE MARS HOUSE

"Beautiful, surreal imagery appears throughout the novel, too . . . Clear a weekend if you can, and let yourself be absorbed." --The New York Times Book Review on THE KINGDOMS

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Pub date: 2026-08-18

Length: 464 pages