Salt Publishing has announced the forthcoming release of What the Fog Conceals, the debut novel by Belfast-based author R.A. Marno. The novel will be published on 15th August 2026 and is now available for pre-order through Salt and major booksellers.
A haunting, beautifully controlled work of literary gothic fiction, What the Fog Conceals explores the silences left by grief, the weight of buried memory, and the quiet horror of complicity. Blending atmosphere and psychological realism, Marno’s prose reveals how the past endures — not as ghost story, but as an act of omission.
Set in a remote estate shadowed by history, the novel unearths the emotional archaeology of a family haunted less by what is seen than by what is deliberately ignored. At once intimate and unsettling, it asks what it costs to stay silent — and what remains when memory itself begins to fade.
Speaking about the partnership, Marno said that what ultimately confirmed Salt as the right home for the novel was Christopher Hamilton-Emery’s genuine enthusiasm for the work. That sense of belief in the book, together with the clarity and care Salt is known for in how it supports its authors, gave him real confidence in choosing the publisher as a creative partner.
Christopher Hamilton-Emery, Director at Salt Publishing, described the novel as “a super piece of work — deeply atmospheric and filmic.”
What the Fog Conceals marks the arrival of a striking new voice in literary gothic fiction — a novel that grips like a thriller, reads like literature, and lingers long after the final page.
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