> Skip to content
  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241521380
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $22.99

The Salt Eaters

  • Toni Cade Bambara




The tale of a woman transformed by a Black healing community in 1970s America, publishing for the first time in Penguin Modern Classics

'A book full of marvels' New Yorker
The American Deep South, in the 1970s. Velma Henry, once a formidable political activist, has grown weary and disillusioned with the fight for civil rights. She wants to end it all. But then she finds herself in the hands of a Black faith community, and the fabled healer Minnie Ransom. As she works through the rage and fear of her traumatic past, Velma finds herself changing, becoming whole and, maybe, free. The Salt Eaters is a boldly optimistic, profound exploration of memory, the self, power and Black health as liberation.

'A hymn to individual courage' The Times Literary Supplement
'Her characters inhabit the nonlinear, sacred space and sacred time of traditional African religion' The New York Times Book Review

  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241521380
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $22.99

Praise for The Salt Eaters

A long, rich dream

Anne Tyler

A hymn to individual courage, a sombre message of hope

Times Literary Supplement

A book full of marvels

New Yorker

Daringly brilliant

Gloria Hull

Toni Cade Bambara's writing is so great it lifts you off the ground

New Statesman

Nobody writes with her breathtaking humour, empathy, ferocity, and surrealness ... her observation and humanity are timeless. As a reader, I release myself into Ms. Toni's sure and steady hands, knowing every part of me will be illuminated by her gaze

Adjoa Andoh, Glamour
penguin pop image
penguin pop image