In Palestine, Salma reads her daughter’s coffee dregs on the eve of her wedding, but only tells Alia part of what she foresees. The rest she will find out soon enough. Salt Houses, Hala Alyan’s debut novel, covers three family generations.

The first uprooting and loss comes with the Six Day War of 1967. The book follows the family through a series of relatively peaceful times intercepted by war for the next fifty years. Bit by bit and war by war, the family scatters to Kuwait City, Beirut, Paris, and Boston with different levels and approaches to how much they assimilate into their new cultures and how much they hold onto the old values and traditions.

She describes the war times – electricity cutting out every few hours, adults forbidding children to leave the house or even to go out on the balcony, men yelling at the television when it was on and shaking their heads, news reports with streaks of smoke from the airport, and planes dropping bombs “like eggs from their abdomens.”

In between, life resembles a normal pull and tug as children grow up wanting to stretch their wings and throw off old restrictions, as parents worry and disagree on how to handle the young ones, and as grandmother recalls the old ways or helps the young ones circumvent the rules. Normality lasts only until the next conflict.

The theme of the book is in a paragraph near the end. “What they say never changes. There is a war Alia knows. She understands this intuitively; in fact, it seems to her the only truth she holds immutable. There is a war. It is being fought and people are losing, though she is uncertain who exactly.”

Salt Houses sheds light on a question I’ve often asked when I’ve seen those reports of wars that seem interminable, “How do people live in that kind of atmosphere?” and puts a human face on what seems far away and can be forgotten once the newscast goes off.

An incredibly beautifully written story of one Palestinian family's fight for survival through the decades from around the 1950s to the present. It begins with the reading of coffee grounds from Mother, Salma to her daughter, Alia on the eve of Alia's wedding.

The future as it turns out isn't so bright for this family. There is so much turmoil and displacement from their home in Nablus to Kuwait, Lebanon and even in America. Politics, religion, and wars play crucial roles.

This story is a must for everyone. It had heart, great sadness and in the end it reaffirms that with love of family, goodness will always prevail.

There are plenty of times when fiction ventures into territory that is unfamiliar—in fact, that’s one of the reasons I love it so much. But Salt Houses, the debut novel from Hala Alyan is about a subject that I almost can’t wrap my mind around. The fact of having been driven out, by force or war, from not just your home, but virtually every country where you’ve settled. For Salma’s family this is their life. They are Muslims and in the span of fifty years they are pushed from Israel to the West Bank to Kuwait to Jordan to Lebanon. The novel passes through the years and the lives of Salma’s daughters and their daughters and their daughters as they move from country to country. Forced migration is the keystone of their family’s history as told by a member of each generation.

Before the novel begins Salma, her husband and their three children are forced out of their home in Israel due to the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Now it is 1963, they live in the West Bank and the youngest daughter, Alia, is getting married. Four years later and war has entered the West Bank and brought the death of Mustafa, Alia’s beloved brother and her husband’s best friend. This death will be an unexpected, but pivotal part of the family’s history. They split between Kuwait and Jordan, until Sadaam Hussein invades Kuwait and they move again. By the time the novel ends Salma’s great-granddaughters live in places like Boston and even Beirut. Some maintain their close ties to tradition, but for others the only movement is forward and the past is something to be forgotten.

What gives Salt Houses its intimacy is that the focus is not violence or the specifics of Middle Eastern conflict. Rather it is the constant struggle to retain a sense of self when one of the most basic premises of that sense—where am I from?—is lost. This could be enough to sink the novel but Alyan chooses to play it off against another foundational dynamic that can be just as shifting and hard to understand—the mother-daughter relationship. She balances the unfamiliar concept of displacement with an all-too familiar reality for a lot of us. For each generation there is the push and pull of tradition, with mothers trying to pass on values that many daughters are determined to rebel against. In this way, Alyan beautifully melds the universality of family relationships with the singularity of Muslims uprooted time and again from their homes. For those of us who have never had to contemplate leaving our home, friends and possessions behind it is a much needed glimpse into the plight of families who have no choice but to escape for their own safety and then must deal with being unwelcome outsiders wherever they go. Salt Houses left me weighted with sadness, but very glad I read it.

4.5 I have thought about this book on and off for the last day or so. Such a wonderful family, displaced people, living in countries not of their birth. Displaced by war, in Iraq, Kuwait, 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 who has so much hope in his family, their lives. This family will eventually be dispersed, some in Paris, Boston, Lebanon, a family divided by circumstances often beyond their control. They are though luckier than many as they have the money to relocate, not having to live in tents in a refugee camp.

What I was thinking though was how hard it is to live in a country you are unfamiliar with, to heaving to adjust again and again, to, watch your children settle elsewhere. That they only want what we all want, a home, safety, their children close, a place where they are wanted, belong. They worry over their children, their marriages, what they will eat, they laugh, cry, get angry, are sad when they cannot connect with their family. Lastly, some pass on and some get sick, but in the end family is family and so it proves in this story. Yes, it is indeed a story but very real too I believe, honest and thoughtful and about a subject the author herself knows well. Indeed these people are like is and I can't help thinking that if people would pay more attention to the things that make us the same instead of the things that make us different, that just maybe there would not be these constant wars. naïve probably, but as you can see this book gave me much to think about.

ARC from publisher.

A beautiful and harrowing multi-generational tale about one family's sojourn through the Mid-East once they are forced from their ancestral home in Jaffa in 1967. With each subsequent attempt at securing safety, politics shift and once again the family is forced to uproot and flee to another location. Along the way, their sense of identity shifts as new family members, by marriage, reflect their new locations. The family has wealth, allowing them a level of movement and access not available to many refugees; yet leaving them uncertain if they should have resisted before they fled. The one time they did had catastrophic consequences. The historic and multi-generational sweep of the novel make it truly memorable. The author is fantastically gifted and this book is not to be missed. It takes a highly charged political arena and brings it to a personal/family level; making the political personal in a way that cannot be ignored or minimized. All while telling an amazing tale. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

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 me. This is not a dysfunctional family, but it is a family of strong personalities -- full of love but with lots of jagged edges. The writing is beautiful – expressive but crisp. I loved the sense of place and the way in which recent history is woven through the story. The theme of dislocation is familiar, but Salt Houses treats it with more subtlety and finesse than many books I have read. Highly recommended. One of my fiction favourites so far this year. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for advance copies. And thanks to Angela and Diane for another excellent buddy read.

4.5 stars

A 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 displaced. These are not the refugees that we read about in the news and see on tv news casts living in tents and starving. This is not a story that primarily focuses on the ravages of the wars, but on how the displacement from their home and from the places they call home affects who they are, how they live. I was taken right from the beginning by the writing and I loved reading about the customs, how the children and then the grandchildren resist the traditions, how the future evolved with them. I really like the multiple points of view with alternating chapters of some of the family members.

The sense of loss, of identity for the children and grandchildren of Alia and Atef depicts what so many people must have felt like after 9/11, how they were treated because of where they were born. "Souad felt the clerks' gaze - two young Midwestern men, eyes like icepicks - on them the entire time. One of the men flung the change at her, several coins falling to the ground. Souad's fear was like a bell waking her. As they were leaving, she caught the words terrorist and bitch and a burst of laughter." And Linah , the next generation, feeling confused and is speechless when a girl in school says, "You think your people deserve to be here? My mom told me all about them. Palestinians killed my uncle during the war."

While their experience is not typical, I loved that so much about them felt typical- the teenagers especially. What I loved most was how the family all comes together. I loved the family dynamics, loved that the children and grandchildren came to know who they were even though only one of the grandchildren gets to go the place where the family begins - depicted in a beautiful scene by the sea. The one thing that was a little bothersome and perhaps the reason for taking off a half star was that I was confused at times in the earlier chapters when time frames of the past and present in a single chapter were not clear. Having said that I found the most beautiful writing in the book in the last few chapters and the epilogue. Hala Aylan's poetic talent is reflected in her beautiful prose and moving scenes. Definitely recommended.
Another great read along with Diane and Esil.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt through NetGalley.

This is a very beautifully written and told piece of fiction, with a lot of historical facts. We follow four generations of a Palestinian family, from the 1960's to present day, starting off in Jaffa, then Nablus, they will then move to Kuwait City, Amman, Beirut, some to France and the USA, yet always returning to their roots and family when they could.
We go through their struggles as they experience other upheavals in the other location they have moved to, we feel the tension of the area, how each of these characters react to the situations, or how involved they are in them. It was an interesting and educational way to see and feel these conflicts, through this families eyes.
The other part of the story is a very universal one, one which relates to all of us. Where one goes through the normal sequence of conflict between parent and child, sibling differences, and their want of Independence, which is such a universal challenge for us all. A testament that despite our political views, our ways of seeing the world, our traditions, actions, etc. we are all basically the same. Something that we should never forget.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC of this book.
I really look forward to more stories by this author.

Interesting story that looks at several generations in an Arab family, and how the changes in the region and world shape their lives.

Another good book for these days, giving a voice to a people and problem that can seem far away to many of us

Salt Houses was an interesting look at a family's trials and tribulations in the Middle East over a span of five decades. Political turmoil and a network of family meant they had to spread far and wide to find the meaning of home.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30971664-salt-houses" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Salt Houses" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474820735m/30971664.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30971664-salt-houses">Salt Houses</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6483825.Hala_Alyan">Hala Alyan</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1882821627">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
4.5<br />This is a beautiful story about a Palestinian family uprooted from their home in Nablus in 1967 in the wake of the Six-Day War.<br />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. <br />We will see this family grow, Alia's children, grandchildren, and follow their heartbreaks and blessings. <br /><br />Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, author Hala Allan, and NetGalley for this advanced copy!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12851291-karen">View all my reviews</a>

Insightful and emotional! In Salt Houses the relations and connections Alyan describes will show everyone how no matter what differences may appear on the surface we are all similar sharing the same hopes, fears, loves and joys.

I found this a difficult book to get into for several reasons. With so many unfamiliar words and no definition available on the kindle app, I got bogged down trying to translate words specific to the culture. The subject matter is not something I am knowledgeable about; therefore, I found myself having to "Google" parts to see what references were being made. In the beginning, my desire to continue was driven by my need to know if the dregs in the cup were true and if Mustafa figures things out. Later, I was drawn forward by the need to know more about the family.
This historical fiction novel is well written and true to the time periods it reflects. It spans many years and generations, many wars and conflicts. The reader becomes a part of the life of a once-privileged Palestinian family and their perils as they are displaced multiple times, and as new generations make decisions for themselves that make the family fear losing their cultural values. While I did not find the book to be an easy read, I did find it to be educational and very thought provoking. I think it would be a great assigned reading for a high school or college course!

Some Palestinians refer to 1948 as al-Nakbah, “the Catastrophe.” That was the year Israel became a state and Palestinians were pushed off of their land to make room. Hala Alyan uses 1948 as the starting point for her novel, Salt Houses. Through chapters narrated by members of one Palestinian family from 1948 to 2014, Alyan shows us what looking back and being rootless can do to a family. And through this family, we can see the effects of losing a homeland on an entire people: the Palestinian diaspora.

Salt Houses opens in the early 1960s as Salma, the matriarch of a small family in Nablus, is reading her daughter’s fortune in tea leaves. What she sees in the cup shocks and dismays her. She knows that Alia will have a tough life. So she refuses to tell Alia what she sees. From 1963, the novel jumps to 1965 and Salma’s son, Mustafa. Then on to the 1970s and Alia and her husband. Over the next decades, we will meet Alia’s children and their children. We will go from the former Palestine to Kuwait; Amman, Jordan; Beirut, Lebanon; and Paris.

At one point in the novel, about halfway through, one of the family muses on how nostalgia can be a disease. Throughout the book, characters regret and grow angry over the things they’ve lost. There was always a better time, in another place, that they can’t go back to. Sometimes, that better place and time was in Haifa, Israel, or Nablus or Amman. Sometimes it’s before a beloved family member died. Over time, the family loses their roots. The younger generation grow further and further away from their elders, who can remember their old homeland.

While most of the conflicts in Salt Houses are emotional ones (particularly between mothers and daughters who are so similar they can’t get along), politics and religion are present in the story. Two of the male members of the family are tempted to join terrorist organizations to regain what was taken from them. Terrorism is a shadowy force in the novel, mostly occurring off the page or between chapters. We really only learn of the fallout. The Islam that these two male characters, Mustafa and Abdullah, practice is less important for comfort or understanding as it is a vehicle and justification (through radical imams) for violence.

Alyan is savvy in that she provides more than one view of Islam. For those two men, Islam is spun as a way to take back power—something that is very attractive to men who feel (rightly or wrongly) that they’ve been abused and robbed by the state of Israel. For the women, however, especially Salma and her granddaughter, Riham, we get to see Islam as a personal comfort. Truth to tell, we see more of the women’s belief than the men’s. Through Salma and Riham, Islam becomes a way to talk to god, to see order in the world, and to comfort believers when life is hard. We see the Islam that American media rarely shows.

Not all of the characters in Salt Houses are appealing. One in particular drove me nuts when she showed up on the page. Rather, this book is a subtle depiction of politics, religion, nostalgia, and belonging. I say subtle because many of these topics crept up on me. Now that I’ve finished the book, I find myself thinking about them more–which is always a sign of a good book to me.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 2 May 2017.

A beautifully written book that encompasses so much of what is happening in the Middle East, yet does not engulf itself in war, or murder, or terrorism, but instead sets the story within generations of a Palestinian family. The story begins at a wedding where the dregs of coffee foretell of life filled with sorrow, displacement, and emotional attachments. Thus the story begins on the newlywed life of Alia and Atef: the many cities in the Middle East that they learn to call 'home' following the 1967 war, the three children they have with all the troubles of parenting that come with them, the winds that blow their family to all parts of the world, the rebellion of the teenage years and the search for identity in adulthood, and the final realization of what it means to be 'Palestinian.' This book does not tell a story of great tension, or mystery, or passion; what it does do is tell the story of a family who survives. It opened up a hitherto unforeseen part of the Middle East for me and I will be forever grateful.

A poignant story told with a neutrality that focuses on a family rather than the plight of the Palestinian people. There are hardships suffered at the hands of another country, displaced, becoming people fleeing for their safety, but the same feelings and characteristics do not alter the individuals. They may speak a different language, worship differently and eat different foods but when the surface is peeled away there is little difference in individuals the world over. They have fear, hopes, love, sorrow. They become afflicted with the same maladies. They cheer for birth as they mourn for death. They squabble amongst themselves and maybe despise but tolerate certain personal idiosyncrasies. Their living conditions may be altered by the actions of others, actions as old as mankind itself, but they remain a family of individuals related by birth, marriage and the bonds of family. The differences in the lifestyles of the children are of a generational influence, as it is most of the world over in modern civilizations. A close look shows the family to be little different from most families, in spite or maybe because of the circumstances and the people that surround them. It is an insightful look at the lives of people of a different place, a different culture, but striving to get by as so many do in so many different places. This is a peek into a family’s life in the Mideast without the finger pointing, saber rattling, the flag waving, and the chanting about other cultures, other countries. Kudos to the author for presenting this view.

In 1963, Alia is a young Palestinian woman on the eve of her wedding night. Over the next 50 years, political and military conflicts push Alia and her family out of Palestine and eventually scatter them across three continents. This novel was a beautiful and much-needed glimpse into an important area of world history many Americans miss in school, but more than that, it is the poignant story of one family and what it means when you can't really go home again.

Am hoping that the publisher will provide a kindle option for reading the arc.