Transplant Othello to the tumult of a country in social and political flux and en route to regicide -- England in the 1640s -- and render him uncertain about his sexuality, and you have the makings of Jacob Cullen, one of the most commanding characters in contemporary writing. As the book opens, Jacob is an educated, vigorous and dauntingly strong manservant in a Royalist household, who has begun to imbibe god-fearing revolutionary pamphlets. He is on the brink of marriage to his virginal sweetheart, but is unsure of his emotional needs, and in possession of a boiling point he reaches all too often. He is also, we learn, fearful of being identified as the murderer of a local boy, and a potential nemesis arrives on the very day of his wedding feast, prompting the first of a series of impetuous, temper-fuelled bad decisions: Jacob flees, dragging his new wife and one of his brothers with him. Thereafter he proceeds to wreak havoc on the lives of others but mostly on his own fortunes - as a servant, a husband, a brother, a soldier, and, critically, as friend, co-conspirator and lover of another man disaffected by the lurch from freedom to tyranny now apparent in Cromwell's New Model Army. To step outside the law, outside the state, outside the established and natural order of things seems to supply the only prospect of happiness...All this makes for a truly heady historical narrative: gripping, unusual, packed with heady ingredients - truly, we are in a world turned upside down by political fervour, inflammatory pamphleteering, social flux, grisly combat, apocalyptically evangelical Christianity, sexual confusion, and murder most foul...The earthy, tangy quality of McCann's Republican-style prose, infused with a fresh twentieth-century sensibility, makes the whole entirely accessible and irresistible. Is this then perhaps the first great novel of the English Revolution?

As meat loves salt

Literature & Fiction

MCCANN, Maria

Genre Fiction

Flamingo

A sensational tale of obsession and murder from a wonderful writer. 'An outstanding novel, fresh and unusual [with] all the dirt, stink, rasp and flavour of the time.' Daily Telegraph 'Early in the English Civil War, a body is dredged from the pond of a Royalist estate. "As Meat Loves Salt" is the testament of Jacob Cullen -- homicide and fugitive. Obsessed with the graceful Christopher Ferris, he follows him to become a London printer, a Digger and, finally, an emigrant to the New World!An electrifying erotic thriller, rich in secrets and surprises.' Independent

As Meat Loves Salt

A darkly erotic tale of passion and obsession, "As Meat Loves Salt "is a gripping portrait of 17th-century England beset by war. It is also a moving portrait of a man on the brink of madness. Hailed as a masterpiece, this is a first novel by an original new voice in fiction.

HarperCollins Publishers, Limited

In the seventeenth century, the English Revolution is under way. The nation, seething with religious and political discontent, has erupted into violence and terror. Jacob Cullen and his fellow soldiers dream of rebuilding their lives when the fighting is over. But the shattering events of war will overtake them. A darkly erotic tale of passion and obsession, As Meat Loves Salt is a gripping portrait of England beset by war. It is also a moving portrait of a man on the brink of madness. Hailed as a masterpiece, this is a novel by a most original new voice in fiction. A Harvest Original

As Meat Loves Salt (Harvest Original)

United States

Harvest Books

A novel of secrets and revenge within a seventeenth-century English family. Longlisted for the Orange Prize 1672. A generation after the Civil War, Jonathan Dymond, a cider maker, has so far enjoyed a quiet life. But when he discovers a letter from his dying uncle, hinting an inheritance and revenge, he is determined to unravel the mystery in his family. Under the pretence of his cider business, Jonathan visits his newly widowed aunt and there meets her unruly servant girl, Tamar, who soon reveals that she has secrets of her own...

The Wilding

Contemporary

Faber & Faber, Limited

Behind doors is another story. Behind doors you can do what you like.\nSophia - rational, demure, and hiding a 'little weakness' - has recently married the charismatic Mr Zedland. But Zedland has secrets of his own and Sophia comes to suspect that her marriage is not what it seems.\nIn cramped rooms in Covent Garden, Betsy-Ann shuffles a pack of cards. A gambler, dealer in second-hand goods, and living with a grave robber, her life could not be more different to Sophia's - but she too discovers that she has been lied to.\nAs both women take steps to discover the truth, their lives come together through a dramatic series of events, taking the reader through the streets of 1760s London: a city wearing a genteel civility on its surface and rife with hypocrisy, oppression and violence lurking underneath.

Ace, King, Knave

Faber&Faber

Charnwood

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Books by MCCANN, Maria

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MCCANN, Maria. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

As meat loves salt

As Meat Loves Salt

As Meat Loves Salt

As Meat Loves Salt (Harvest Original)

The Wilding

Ace, King, Knave

Ace, King, Knave

The Wilding