Salt HousesWinner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR * Nylon * Kirkus Reviews * Bustle * BookPage “Moving and beautifully written.” — Entertainment Weekly On the eve of her daughter Alia’s wedding, Salma reads the girl’s future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses follows three generations of a Palestinian family and asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again. “[Alyan is] a master.” — Los Angeles Review of Books “Beautiful . . . An example of how fiction is often the best filter for the real world around us.” — NPR “Gorgeous and sprawling . . . Heart-wrenching, lyrical and timely.” — Dallas Morning News “[Salt Houses] illustrate[s] the inherited longing and sense of dislocation passed like a baton from mother to daughter.” — New York Times Book Review |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - Castlelass - LibraryThing“He thinks of them, instinctively touching the soil again. All the houses they have lived in, the ibriks and rugs and curtains they have bought; how many windows should any person own? The houses ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - sriddell - LibraryThingMulti-generation family saga. This book tells the story of a Palestinian family displaced repeatedly by war, starting in the 1960s and continuing well into the 21st century. But throughout changes ... Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
Abdullah Alia Alia’s Amman apartment Arabic arms asks Atef beautiful begins beneath body breath Budur cigarette coming dark daughter door dress Elie eyes face fall father feels felt finally fingers friends front girl hair hand happened head hear holds It’s Karam keep Khalto kitchen Kuwait laugh leave lifts light Linah lips listening living looks Mama Manar mind months morning mosque mother mouth move Mustafa Nablus never night nods once past pulls remembers Riham rises Salma says seemed shakes side silent sits smell smiles smoke Souad sound speak spoke stands stay steps suddenly summer takes talk television tell things thinks thought told touch turns voice wait walks watching wear weeks Widad window woman women young Zain
Bibliographic information
| Title | Salt Houses |
| Author | Hala Alyan |
| Publisher | HarperCollins, 2017 |
| ISBN | 0544912381, 9780544912380 |
| Length | 336 pages |
| Subjects | › › Fiction / Cultural Heritage Fiction / Family Life / General Fiction / Literary Fiction / Sagas |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |