Salt Houses

Reading Salt Houses is like having your coffee grounds read cosmic, foreboding and titillating all at once In this magnificent debut, Alyan s powerful and poetic voice guides us into the dark recesses of history and leads us right up to the present tensions between East West, the modern ancestral, the hopeless and the hopeful Aline Ohanesian, author of Or Download Salt Houses – kino-fada.fr We can t imagine how dreadful, how terrifying war is and how normal it becomes Can t understand, can t imagine That s what every soldier, and every journalist and aid worker and independent observer who has put in time under fire, and had the luck to elude the death that struck down others nearby, stubbornly feels And they are right Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of OthersI can t even begin to imagine how it must feel to be faced with the fact that you can never return to your home T We can t imagine how dreadful, how terrifying war is and how normal it becomes Can t understand, can t imagine That s what every soldier, and every journalist and aid worker and independent observer who has put in time under fire, and had the luck to elude the death that struck down others nearby, stubbornly feels And they are right Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of OthersI can t even begin to imagine how it must feel to be faced with the fact that you can never return to your home That most precious of places a safe haven from all the madness that takes place i...I wasn t sure what a salt house was before reading this so I googled the crap out of it and there was still no definitive definition A house by the sea was the closest I got but that s all you need to know for this one.This is a multigenerational story of a family in the Middle East It s where traditions are weaved intricately into the daily lives of this family It starts with a coffee ground reading for a girl about to be married, which foretells of a horrific and unstable future Not long I wasn t sure what a salt house was before reading this so I googled the crap out of it and there was still no definitive definition A house by the sea was the closest I got but that s all you need to know for this one.This is a multigenerational story of a family in the Middle East It s where traditions are weaved intricately into the daily lives of this family It starts with a coffee ground reading for a girl about to be married, which foretells of a horrific and unstable future Not long after, the 6 day war in Palestine begins which alters this family s life by taking with it a br...4.5 starsA displaced family, a multigenerational story of their lives over decades in the various places they move to from Jaffa to Kuwait to Amman to Paris and Boston A Palestinian family, the Yacoubs, a family of means is not unscathed by the wars and the politics of the places in which they live because they live comfortably It affords them the ability to leave their home when they have to insure their safety but it doesn t insulate them from the deep emotional consequences of being disp 4.5 starsA displaced family, a multigenerational story of their lives over decades in the various places they move to from Jaffa to Kuwait to Amman to Paris and Boston A Palestinian family, the Yacoubs, a family of means is not unscathed by the wars and the politics of the places in which they live because they live comfortably It affords them the ability to leave their home when they have to insure their safety but it ...Salt Houses by Hala Alyan is a 2017 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publication Powerful, eye opening cultural family saga This deeply absorbing novel follows a Palestinian family through several generations as they endure war, loss, and displacement.As the story begins, Salma follows an old tradition of reading the coffee dregs for her daughter, Alia, before her wedding What she sees, disturbs her, as it appears her daughter will lead an unsettled life, but she decides not to share her knowledge Salt Houses by Hala Alyan is a 2017 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publication Powerful, eye opening cultural family saga This deeply absorbing novel follows a Palestinian family through several generations as they endure war, loss, and displacement.As the story begins, Salma follows an old tradition of reading the coffee dregs for her daughter, Alia, before her wedding What she sees, disturbs her, as it appears her daughter will lead an unsettled life, but she decides not to share her knowledge with anyone Yet, her predictions soon come to pass, as their family suffers a loss they never fully recover from and must le...4.5 I have thought about this book on and off for the last day or so a buddy read with Angela and Esil Such a wonderful family, displaced people, living in countries not of their birth Displaced by war, in Iraq, Kuwait, Palestine, Arabs who try to find a home We follow this family through generations, chapters devoted to different family members and my favorite from the beginning was Atef This man who marries Alia, a woman he loves very much, but he is consumed by so much guilt, a quiet man 4.5 I have thought about this book on and off for the last day or so a buddy read with Angela and Esil Such a wonderful family, displaced people, living in countries not of their birth Displaced by war, in Iraq, Kuwait, Palestine, Arabs who try to find a home We follow...There s something about Salt Houses that worked perfectly for me It s a multi generational story about a family originally from Palestine, displaced and scattered, but that remains strongly united over the years The story is told from the alternating points of view of a few family members across three generations, starting in 1967 up to today Each lengthy chapter picks up a few years after the previous chapter, but flits back and forth in time, catching us up on what happened in the last few There s something about Salt Houses that worked perfectly for me It s a multi generational story about a family originally from Palestine, displaced and scattered, but that remains strongly united over the years The story is told from the alternating points of view of a few family members across three generations, starting in 1967 up to today Each lengthy chapter picks up a few years after the previous chapter, but flits back and forth in time, catching us up on what happened in the last few years The points of view are deeply subjective, immersing us into these characters idiosyncratic understanding of their lives and their place in the family The women in particular resonated for ...4.5This is a beautiful story about a Palestinian family uprooted from their home in Nablus in 1967 in the wake of the Six Day War.The story begins with a mother named Salma reading her daughter Alia s future in a cup of coffee dregs on the eve of her wedding, and follows this family through their displacement to Kuwait In 1990 they lose everything again and scatter to Beirut, Paris, and the United States We will see this family grow, Alia s children, grandchildren, and follow their heartbreaks 4.5This is a beautiful story about a Palestinian family uprooted from their home ...4.5 Stars.A wonderful Palestinian family saga evolves decade by decade taking the reader from one side of the world to the other, from one culture to another beginning with the happiness of young love and marriage in a land most loved through sadness and loss and the devastation of war with recurring displacement.Most memorable for me, though, won t be the difficult times, but the beautiful descriptive scenery of a place I have little knowledge, the interspersion of life changing histor 4.5 Stars.A wonderful Palestinian family saga evolves decade by decade taking the reader from one side of the world to the other, from one culture to another beginning with the happiness of young love and marriage in a land most loved through sadness and loss and the devastation of war with recurring displacement.Most memorable for me, though, won t be the difficult times, but the beautiful descriptive scener...We are what we produced in the land that was ourswe are what s left of us in exilewe are the plants of a broken vasewe are what we are, but who are we Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet This story is as beautiful as the cover that contains it I was spellbound by Alyan s storytelling, moved by her use of language and engrossed by this family s history We follow four generations of a Palestinian family and see real world events through the lens of these characters experiences and what the auWe are what we produced in the land that was ourswe are what s left of us in exilewe are the plants of a broken vasewe are what we are, but who are we Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet This story is as beautiful as the cover that contains it I was spellbound by Alyan s storytelling, moved by her use of language and engrossed by this family s history We follow four generations of a Palestinian family and see real world events through the lens of these characters experiences and what the author has noted is the intergenerational trauma that trickles down through generations From the West Bank to Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, France and the U.S., the Yacou...I loved this novel It takes a Palestinian family and follows different members throughout periods of conflict, chaos, and opportunity It starts in the early 1960s and follows through the present day It asks questions about home, family, belonging, and identity Despite events often being dictated by war and early characters being forced into becoming refugees, the focus is muchdomestic The characters are worried a...

• English
• 01 March 2018
Hala Alyan
• Hardcover
• 320 pages
• 0544912586
• Hala Alyan
• Salt Houses