Michelle Lovric brings The Puffin to Salt

We’re thrilled to announce that bestselling and award-winning author Michelle Lovric is joining the Salt list with her dazzling new historical novel, The Puffin. Published on 8 October 2026, this paperback original promises to be one of the great highlights of our autumn programme.

Michelle is the much-loved author of The Book of Human Skin and a former Women’s Prize nominee. Known for her lyrical prose, dark wit and impeccable historical detail, she now turns her gaze to Venice in 1817 – a city of intrigue, revolution and romance.

In The Puffin, a disfigured traitor, a revolutionary milliner, a sadistic assassin – and, yes, a puffin – become entangled in a plot to ransom a Habsburg princess. The result is a heady mix of radical lovers, poets, smugglers and spies. By turns thrilling, tender and gloriously eccentric, it is historical fiction at its most seductive.

Michelle herself says:

“How lucky am I to join Salt – where the publisher’s a poet, the covers are brilliant, and the culture’s warm, human, daring and energetic?”

Salt’s Director, Chris Hamilton-Emery, calls it “one of the most dazzling novels I’ve read in years – clever, romantic, politically charged and wildly imaginative.” He adds: “We anticipate strong appeal to fans of Sarah Waters, Jessie Burton and Andrew Miller, as well as to booksellers and readers seeking original historical fiction with heart and bite.”

We couldn’t be more excited to bring this extraordinary novel into the world. The Puffin will be supported by a major campaign across bookshops, the media and our digital channels.

Save the date – 8 October 2026 – and prepare to be seduced by Michelle Lovric’s unforgettable vision of Venice.