The Salt Road

Jane Johnson's The Salt Road is a magical historical adventure which brings the most unlikely of people together in an epic quest that spans the decades and the hot, shifting sands of Morocco.

'My dear Isabelle, in the attic you will find a box with your name on it.'

Isabelle's archaeologist father dies leaving a puzzle: a mysterious African amulet. But what is it? And why did he want her to have it? On impulse she takes a plane to Morocco to find out.

But has Isabelle's curiosity got the better of her?

Almost killed in an accident which damages the amulet (revealing more of its secrets), she realises she must be careful. But when her rescuer, Taïb, who knows the dunes and their peoples, offers to help uncover the amulet's history, she cannot resist uncovering the story of Tin Hanan - She of the Tents - who made a legendary desert crossing alone, and her descendant Mariata.

Across years and over hot, shifting sands, tracking the Salt Road, the stories of Isabelle and Taïb, Mariata and her lover, become entangled with that of the lost amulet.

It is a tale of souls wounded by history and of love blossoming on barren ground.

Praise for Jane Johnson:

'An exotic page-turner that links the fates of two women' Woman & Home

'A magical Moroccan adventure . . . unputdownable' She

'An unashamedly escapist page-turner that will be enjoyed by fans of Kate Mosse' Daily Mail

'Atmospheric and hugely romantic' Marie Claire

Jane Johnson is from Cornwall and worked for many years in London. In 2005 she was in Morocco researching the story of a distant ancestor kidnapped by Barbary pirates and sold into slavery - the basis of her first novel, The Tenth Gift - when a near-fatal climbing accident caused her to rethink her future. She returned home, gave up her office job in London and moved to Morocco - where she found and married her Berber husband. Her third novel, The Sultan's Wife is set in sixteenth century Morocco and England and is published by Penguin.