Salt Fish Girl

By Larissa Lai,

Book cover of Salt Fish Girl

Book description

Salt Fish Girl is the mesmerizing tale of an ageless female character who shifts shape and form through time and place. Told in the beguiling voice of a narrator who is fish, snake, girl, and woman - all of whom must struggle against adversity for survival - the novel is…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Salt Fish Girl as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I was enthralled by this book. I didn’t want to leave its strange but familiar world. Lai slipstreams between a near-future dystopia and ancient origin stories.

This book made me question the common assumption that eating and reproduction are unrelated processes. I started wondering if I carried the smells of my mother’s diet on my skin like Lai’s protagonist, who smells like durian fruit.

When I finished this book, I knew I would read it several more times, and I have!

From Lindsay's list on metabolism and digestion in the arts.

If you love Salt Fish Girl...

Ad

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest By Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

Want books like Salt Fish Girl?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Salt Fish Girl.

Browse books like Salt Fish Girl

Book cover of History of Shit
Book cover of by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960-2022)
Book cover of Consuming Ocean Island: Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,606

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like Salt Fish Girl, you might also like...

Girl of Light By Elana Gomel,

Book cover of Girl of Light

A girl of Light in a world of darkness.

In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading…

A Diary in the Age of Water By Nina Munteanu,

Book cover of A Diary in the Age of Water

This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Toronto…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in spacetime, presidential biography, and time travel?

Spacetime 66 books
Time Travel 409 books