Hala Alyan

The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan is a profound and evocative family saga that weaves together personal histories and the broader canvas of historical events in the Middle East. The narrative centres around the Nasr family, a constellation scattered across the world yet anchored in their ancestral home in Beirut. Although life's trials have dispersed them—placing them in Beirut, Brooklyn,...

From the author of The Arsonists’ City and The Twenty-Ninth Year, a new collection of poetry that traces the fragmentation of memory, archive, and family – past, present, future – in the face of displacement and war. A diaspora of memories runs through this poetry collection — a multiplicity of voices, bodies, and houses hold archival material for one another,...

We Call to the Eye and to the Night is an amalgam of eminent poets—Hayan Charara, Leila Chatti, Nathalie Handal, Fady Joudah, and Naomi Shihab Nye, among them—and those who have just begun to make their mark. These poets are descended from diverse countries and represent a breathtaking intersection of voices, experiences, and perspectives. Divided into whimsical sections (named for...

At first, Hala’s baby is the size of a poppyseed. Then a grain of rice, then a lime. After years of trying for a baby, with one miscarriage followed by another, Hala watches from afar as her daughter grows in the body of another woman, in another country. Hala is not just awaiting news from the surrogate. She is also...

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan is an evocative and heart-wrenching novel that spans fifty years, depicting the poignant journey of a Palestinian family forced from their homeland due to the ravages of war. Alyan's stunning debut explores themes of displacement, identity, and resilience, weaving a richly detailed tapestry of individual and collective memories. On the eve of her daughter Alia's...