Harry Ellis knows how to make loneliness look like independence. He has friends who love him, a dry sense of humour built for deflection, and a life arranged carefully enough to keep wanting at a safe distance.
But winter brings familiar desks, Friday drinks, old damage and new almosts, until every kindness feels dangerous, every glance a risk, and every missed chance like proof of what he has always feared.
Funny, intimate and quietly bruising, Salt and Stone is a slow-burn novel about friendship, shame, desire, and the fragile hope of being chosen.