As Meat Loves Salt (Paperback, 1st Harvest ed)

"This is an outstanding debut novel, a fresh and unusual achievement . . . As the title implies, it has all the dirt, stink, rasp and flavour of the time." - The Daily Telegraph (London)
Torn in two by a vicious Civil War, Seventeenth Century England was the scene of extraordinary violence. Among the soldiers travelling across the country from one deadly battle to another is Jacob Cullen, a former servant who dreams of baptizing himself with the blood of battle into a new life after the war. Only his brewing erotic obsession with a fellow fighter threatens his plans.
A dark, erotic tale of passion and obsession, AS MEAT LOVES SALT is a gripping portrait of England beset by war, and the harrowing tale of a man on the edge of madness. Hailed as a masterpiece, this is an extraordinary first novel by a most original new voice in fiction.
"Creeps up on the reader from behind, gathering an emotional momentum and intensity . . . it imaginatively re-creates the mentality of a society racked by war and intoxicated by radical new ideas of freedom and change. "--Times Literary Supplement (London)
"An inventive and vigorous debut novel set in 17th century England at a time of revolution ... urgent and energetic, full of voluptuous descriptions of food, paintings and lifestyles, as well as the war scenes. [Maria McCann's] language is bold and alive, and the reader is drawn into the story right from the start."-- Independent on Sunday (London)
Maria McCann was born in Liverpool in 1956. Since 1985 she has been a lecturer in English at a Somerset college. As Meat Loves Salt is her first book.
A Harvest Original