Salt Houses: A Heartbreaking Novel about Three Generations of a Palestinian Family

Salt Houses is the story of a Palestinian family as they are repeatedly displaced by war, religion, opportunity, and politics. The story is engaging, and it is told in an unusual way with multiple points of view, multiple times, and multiple settings. Even with chapter headings that identify the point of view, the location, and the time, it usually took a paragraph or even a page until I felt oriented. I frequently had to flip back to the previous chapter so that I could figure out how much time had passed. I did not view it as a flaw, but it was different. The story spans more than 50 years. While the narrative begins in 1963, the story goes back even farther. Ms. Alyan does a skillful job of telling story that is both global and intensely personal. Leaving your country voluntarily is not the same as leaving under threat. So many areas of our world are being torn apart, and people are fleeing their homelands as we watch on television. This book gives insight into the impact that falls upon generations. She also makes a point of showing how different the experience is for people of means as opposed to people of limited resources. National identity, cultural identity, family ties, language and politics are all in play. Through the characters and the plot, we learn a lot about the experience for Palestinian refugees in Arab countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, and Lebanon and in Western cities like Paris, Boston, and New York. It is enlightening and interesting. The multiple points of view and jumps in narrative made it difficult to become fully vested in a character. I cared about them and could sympathize, but it did not invade my heart. This would be an excellent book group book for us. It is well written, told in a creative style and format and telling a story that will broaden our horizons. Knowing my book group, we would also find a great deal to talk about. I will not soon forget this book.

Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars "Atia remains too frightened to say anything that might unnerve him. What she knows about her husband, what she thought she knew about the man, has scattered like dandelion seeds beneath a child's breath since he returned from the war." Hala Alyan, Salt Houses From the breathtaking book cover to the magnificent writing, Salt Houses is an extraordinary novel and worthy of praise. Alyan is a gifted writer who brings us a realistic story of an upper-class Palestinian family's bond, and survival through war and displacement. Although I have never been to Nablus, Kuwait or Beirut, through Alyan's impressive descriptions, I felt I had. I was able to feel the joys and sorrows of Salma, Alia, Atef, and the rest of the Yacoub family. I also learned some history of Palestinian Arabs, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the Six-day War of 1967. I honestly cannot imagine having to abandon my home, possessions, and loved ones. Or if I had to move from country to country multiple times because of war, or fear of war. Without a doubt, displacement immobilizes countries involved in a civil conflict, and unfortunately, its citizens are the ones who suffer the most. Being displaced impacts an individual's life emotionally and physically. Salt Houses gives readers a candid look at the Yacoubs' despair and hope for a better life throughout four generations. As a reader, you also witness how the family tries to remain connected, and not lose their cultural origins; while trying to assimilate to all of the different countries. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to gain a better understanding of the Palestinian diaspora.

Someone recently pointed out that I’d never read any books by Palestinian authors. This wasn’t by design, just something that hadn’t occurred to me. I try to understand other lives and cultures through books, so I added this one to the list. It is a story of four generations of a family. They start in Palestine but are displaced and over the years, the family grows and lives in Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, France and America. It is a story about family. It is about survival and having the money to constantly move away from war but also about loving your homeland, wherever that may be. It starts in 1967 and spans through 2014. It’s about times changing, technology catching up, cultures and fashion changing. But mostly it’s about humans. How no matter how different we are, we’re actually so similar. It’s about love and loss and those tiny moments that make a life.

It explores the story of a fictional Palestinian family over a few decades, constantly being displaced by war. The characters are realistic, flawed and imperfect. Job well done.

In many ways this is a very quiet story about one family through several generations . Like any family the experience of the grandparents and great-grandparents is very different from that of the children . My mother grew up with the horse and buggy and my grandchildren with the dizzying speed of technology . In those ways , this family is no different from my family or any other . The story also chronicles the impact of Middle Eastern wars on this one Palestinian family . The book starts in 1963 and ends in 2014 but refers back to the 1948 Israeli Palestinian war . As a 70-year-old, this book made me realize that the Middle East has been at war throughout my entire life . The impact of war and displacement on Palestinians is made real through the experiences of this family . The losses they experience, the hope of finding a lasting home and the difficulties in keeping their history alive for subsequent generations are all apart of their lives in the story . Through all of this is this the commitment to family and the love we have for our families even when they disappoint us and frustrate us . It is not a perfect story and at times the characters were annoying as were the shifts between points of view . But still a good story of love and loss as well as insight into the Palestinian experience.

I was raised as a Reform Jew and celebrated the big Jewish holidays, had shabbos dinner at my grandparents house, and heard a lot about the holocaust and the importance of Israel being the rightful Jewish homeland. All that being said, it always bothered me that Israel was not a Jewish state until 1948 and that other people were living there before they were "relocated". I don't like to read history, but I do like historical fiction and this book puts a new perspective the establishment of the state of Israel. The story starts in 1960's after Israel was established but before the expansion after the Six Day War. It is told over 40-50 years from the perspective from several generations of a Palestinian family - all of them imperfect human beings but human beings nonetheless. They do not suffer greatly but they do suffer as a result of the Jewish people's real need to have a homeland after being subjected to genocide in multiple countries and being rejected by other countries when they tried to leave. I did not like all of the people but I did benefit from seeing the impact of the establishment of the state of Israel from the perspective of the people who were displaced. The book is well written, the characters are well developed, and it is an interesting, but sometimes painful, story.

Reading this book club pick because of current conflict. Not just a good story by an excellent writer, but will educate you on a point of view no one seems to write about or care about. The author tackles the Palestinian plight in such a way that this incredibly complex problem becomes a much more simple human story about choices made when all choices seem to be bad ones, and when privilege vs. poverty is the only thing giving you a choice in the first place.

Salt Houses provides an interesting and vital perspective: the Palestinian diaspora and the emotional toll emigration takes on those forced to wander from country to country. Through the lived experiences of three generations of a Palestinian family, Salt Houses asks the reader to confront the concept of home: where is home when you have been displaced by war? Can a refugee create a new home elsewhere, even as one’s own offspring reject the values on which their culture is based? How does one maintain family bonds strained by constant upheaval? As the grandchild of emigrants who fled civil war in Belfast, Northern Ireland, these questions resonated with me. It’s important that Salt Houses is told from the viewpoint of a moderate Palestinian family that seeks to protect its relatives, especially its sons, from jihadists—and who are deeply suspicious of the imans whipping those boys and young men into a frenzy of anti-Israeli violence. Hala Alyan succeeds in creating characters who are far from the stereotype of rock-throwing terrorists. The Yacoub family are well off, with middle-class aspirations, romances, and jobs—and a snobbish disdain for their own compatriots living in refugee camps. From a writing perspective, several criticisms: there were too many dream sequences, which took me out of the story. Also, I did not get a sense of what many of the characters wanted. The notable exception was Alia, who is desperate to leave Kuwait and live in Amman, even as she wrestles with a deep homesickness for her childhood home in Nablus. Finally, the occasional switch to the present tense was jarring. These issues are the reason I only gave the book 4 stars. Anyone interested in fictional representations of Middle East history will enjoy Salt Houses

I finished this book a month ago and I keep thinking about it! A very powerful tale. <3

Fantastico libro da leggere nel tempo libero

Salt Houses will speak to anyone who can imagine having to flee their family home. Written in a beautiful poetic prose this family’s love story is definitely my favourite read of the year. Hala Alyan’s book has given me invaluable insight into a culture and a war that I have little knowledge of, all the while being thoroughly entertained by her enchanting characters.

Das Leid der Palästinenser wird diesem Werk nicht entsprechend deutlich, weil die Familie, die hier dargestellt wird, finanziell abgesichert ist und sich immer wieder der Gefahr, zu Tode zu kommen, entziehen kann. Außerdem erschwert der sehr hohe Anteil an Dialog das Begreifen der Handlung. Wo sind sie jetzt? Wer ist wer? Das ist natürlich nur mein persönlicher Eindruck, aber ich habe schon sehr viel in meinem Leben gelesen und hatte noch nie Probleme, dem Handlungsverlauf mühelos zu folgen. Was der Titel bedeutet, muss ich noch ergründen.

I still can't believe I got this book for only 199 rupees .. Although I ordered a used book but the condition of the book is good. I'm glad seller thank you ..