Salomé
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Salomé
Pre-order for $26.99
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Leslie Baird
About this listen
Don’t open your eyes...
Courtney notices Salomé the moment she steps onto the plane. She's not usually influenced by others' charms, but there's something undeniable about Salomé. She's magnetic, quicksilver, and, best of all for incurable Francophile Courtney, French. When Salomé invites Courtney to her mother’s town in northwestern France, derailing Courtney’s trip to Paris, Courtney doesn’t even have to think about it.
But things are, almost immediately, a little odd. Despite feeling right at home with Salomé, a house outfitted with cameras and the dark, watchful presence of Salomé’s mother haunts Courtney’s visit. Courtney senses she should leave, but in Salomé’s presence she feels as if she's rediscovered the “French Courtney,” an alternate version of herself who made a life in France.
That is, until she starts to experience paralyzing nightmares, in which strange voices intone Don’t open your eyes . . . and encounters Salomé’s charismatic stepfather Marco, whose pyramid-scheme vitamin company offers a tempting segue into an even more insidious group obsessed with eternal life. Or is it an actual cult? And how much does Salomé really know? As a conspiracy unfurls, Courtney is torn between her loyalty to Salomé and what might be the story of a lifetime, the kind that could make a journalist’s career—if it doesn’t kill her first.
A modern reclamation of one of the Bible’s most dangerous women whose story, until now, has been almost exclusively told by men, Salomé is a tantalizing, feminist tale exploring power, loyalty, connection, and the measures we'll take to harness our deepest desires.
Critic Reviews
"Set in a secluded French town, Salomé is a hauntingly seductive exploration of desire, grief, and avarice. Baird’s lush, hypnotic prose had me in a trance from the very first page. A riveting debut!" —Monika Kim, internationally bestselling author of The Eyes are the Best Part
"Baird’s prose is a bit like descending into a Parisian catacomb—at once darkly terrifying, and somehow simultaneously, bewitching. Salome is equal parts viscerally sharp and cloyingly subtle; scenes of swiftly fading girlhood, with its nostalgia and romances, are met by unexpected interludes on the science of immortality and the peril of extremist ideologies, all blurring elegantly into a scintillating balm which belies the desperate, cathartic, honesty at the novel’s center. The highest praise I can give any work of art, is that it has made me think. And Leslie’s novel has given me thoughts for many years to come." —Eilish Quin, author of Medea
"Leslie Baird's debut is an alluring exploration of ambition, friendship, and secrets. If you had the chance to go on an unexpected adventure in a gorgeous place, wouldn't you consider taking it? Baird gives us this delicious opportunity from the first pages. This atmospheric, evocative novel will be a hit with readers everywhere. I can't wait to read what Baird writes next!" —Saumya Dave, author of The Guilt Pill
"A thrilling story of desire and deception set against the intoxicating backdrop of Paris. . . . A wild ride in every way—a seductive thriller where astral realms collide with bodily desires, where beauty masks malevolence, where science borders on sorcery, where nefarious billionaires reach new depths of depravity, and the line between victim and willing participant vanishes completely. Breathless, electric, and utterly consuming. I was addicted." —Lisa Gabriele, author of The Winters
"Wonderful and compelling, well-drawn and riveting. The book has everything—France, a mysterious town, a seductive friend/lover, a menacing mother, a cult—all moving toward a beautiful description of loss, being present, and how to live a life. A beautiful and original book!" —Karen E. Bender, author of Refund and The Words of Dr. L
"Baird’s prose is a bit like descending into a Parisian catacomb—at once darkly terrifying, and somehow simultaneously, bewitching. Salome is equal parts viscerally sharp and cloyingly subtle; scenes of swiftly fading girlhood, with its nostalgia and romances, are met by unexpected interludes on the science of immortality and the peril of extremist ideologies, all blurring elegantly into a scintillating balm which belies the desperate, cathartic, honesty at the novel’s center. The highest praise I can give any work of art, is that it has made me think. And Leslie’s novel has given me thoughts for many years to come." —Eilish Quin, author of Medea
"Leslie Baird's debut is an alluring exploration of ambition, friendship, and secrets. If you had the chance to go on an unexpected adventure in a gorgeous place, wouldn't you consider taking it? Baird gives us this delicious opportunity from the first pages. This atmospheric, evocative novel will be a hit with readers everywhere. I can't wait to read what Baird writes next!" —Saumya Dave, author of The Guilt Pill
"A thrilling story of desire and deception set against the intoxicating backdrop of Paris. . . . A wild ride in every way—a seductive thriller where astral realms collide with bodily desires, where beauty masks malevolence, where science borders on sorcery, where nefarious billionaires reach new depths of depravity, and the line between victim and willing participant vanishes completely. Breathless, electric, and utterly consuming. I was addicted." —Lisa Gabriele, author of The Winters
"Wonderful and compelling, well-drawn and riveting. The book has everything—France, a mysterious town, a seductive friend/lover, a menacing mother, a cult—all moving toward a beautiful description of loss, being present, and how to live a life. A beautiful and original book!" —Karen E. Bender, author of Refund and The Words of Dr. L
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