Introducing Private Rites

The Audacious Book Club January selection

In “Salt Slow,” the titular story of Julia Armfield’s debut 2019 short story collection, there is a before, and there is an after: the world before the rain and after the flood. The unnamed pregnant protagonist and her lover are confined to a boat drifting, day after day in a water-filled world, attempting both to survive and to find some routine for th…