The Salt and Light Express

After the death of Sally, her partner of thirty-five years, Chris Lawler heads west in a small RV to jump start her life. She is smart and adventurous, but also painfully awkward with people after a childhood of rejection. And she wonders if she will ever find love again, knowing that Sally did all the work of nurturing the relationship.

Once an over-achieving media professional, Chris realizes that older women are generally invisible. She wrestles with her beliefs and with connection . . . connection to the motley mix of campers at a Moab, Utah, campground and connection to her evangelical family in the Texas Hill Country. Along the way, she meets two people who patiently help her shed her cynicism and self doubts — and falls in love with one of them.

She wanders from Utah to the Texas Hill Country, where she struggles to reconnect with and be accepted by her judgmental kin. As a volunteer at the local library, she becomes embroiled in a controversy over Texas history and culture that turns violent. Shaken up, she finally resolves to overcome the emotional barriers that have prevented her from loving and being loved. 

The Salt and Light Express is upmarket book-club fiction: Nomadland meets Andrew Sean Greer’s Less is Lost. 

I live in a robust book-club community. They are my people. I can envision readers discussing the multiple themes of women who are aging, spirituality, racism and interracial relationships, the search for community and love, our divisions, overcoming self-doubt, and the depth of friendship between two older women. 

– Lee Ann Walling