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A review by kim_j_dare
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
5.0
A lovely memoir about reclaiming purpose and hope in the face of devastating setbacks. Author Raynor Winn and her husband Moth have scraped together a decent life for themselves and their two (young adult) children in Cornwall. But a bad investment results in their home being repossessed, and, at the same time, Moth is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Homeless, desperate to stave off the physical deterioration of Moth’s illness, grasping at straws, they make the decision to make a clean break with their old life and set out on the 630-mile South West Coast Path. Winn’s descriptions of events along the path carried me along the terrain; there were multiple instances where I had to pause and look up pictures on Google so that I could get a better sense of the area. Ray’s and Moth’s slow transformation as the harsh elements strip away the nonessentials is powerful.
A month or so into their journey, they come across a woman who tells Raynor that she has the look.
“The look?”
“It’s touched you, it’s written all over you: you’ve felt the hand of nature. It won’t ever leave you now; you’re salted. I came here thirty years ago and never left.... People fight the elements, the weather, especially here, but when it’s touched you, when you let it be, you’re never the same again....”
Part ode to nature, part tribute to human perseverance, and part commentary on the stigma of homelessness, this is one to savor.
A month or so into their journey, they come across a woman who tells Raynor that she has the look.
“The look?”
“It’s touched you, it’s written all over you: you’ve felt the hand of nature. It won’t ever leave you now; you’re salted. I came here thirty years ago and never left.... People fight the elements, the weather, especially here, but when it’s touched you, when you let it be, you’re never the same again....”
Part ode to nature, part tribute to human perseverance, and part commentary on the stigma of homelessness, this is one to savor.