The Salt Path and 2025’s most scandalous books

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But 2025 was also the year that memoirs gained attention for all the wrong reasons. Journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s much-hyped account of her “digital affair” with Robert F. Kennedy was called “American Canto.” “It’s offensively terrible.” be “I hate reading” and “intolerable filler” by critics. Despite hundreds of column inches of coverage, this book Less than 1,200 copies sold in the first week.

In September, The New York Times published an article The issue has raised questions about Amy Griffin’s hit memoir, The Tell, which was supported by celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon. The book chronicles Tell’s childhood sexual abuse, based on memories recovered from MDMA therapy sessions.

salt path scandal

But perhaps the biggest literary scandal of 2025 involved Raynor Wynne’s memoir The Salt Path. First published in 2018, the book tells the story of Wynne and her husband Moss, who traveled 630 miles (1,015 km) along the length of England. southwest coast path. In the book, readers learn that a couple loses their home after a failed investment and subsequent legal dispute with a friend. To make matters worse, a few days later Moss was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a terminal neurological disease. Seeing that they had nothing to lose, the couple decided to start walking. By the end of their journey, a stranger had offered him a place to live, and Moss’s symptoms had surprisingly begun to improve.

Readers fell in love with the story of triumph over tragedy, and the publisher described it as “unflinchingly honest.” The book has sold over 2 million copies and been translated into over 25 languages. Winn published two successful sequels, The Wild Silence and Landlines. In the spring of 2025, the movie “The Salt Path” starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as a couple will be released.