From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

Salt Houses

Hala Alyan

Discussion: 2017 Read Harder Challenge

Why we're reading this: Interlinked stories of family members and generations affected by the many conflicts in the Middle East.
[close] Interlinked stories of family members and generations affected by the many conflicts in the Middle East.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 44 topics — 5,607 comments total

2017 Read Harder Challenge

This topic has been closed to new comments.

* Complete 2017 RHC Task List
By Book Riot · 1 post · 6015 views

last updated Dec 15, 2016 05:50AM

* 2017 Read Harder Challenge
By Book Riot · 1 post · 3503 views

last updated Dec 15, 2016 05:44AM

showing 2 of 2 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Nov 16, 2021 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, middle-east, family, war

3,5 stars!

The premise of this book is so good, about a family who has been affected by the war in Palestine, and how they try to find a permanent home all over the world, only to feel that they don't belong anywhere.

However, because I hope to read more about the war, the background, and how the family dealt with the tragedy, my expectation was a bit different than what the story was about. The story used different PoV in each chapter, with chrconological order and usually skipped a few years ahe ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

May 18, 2024 Lianne rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2024

My reading experience of this book was choppy, but I think it was a combination of my mindset, reading other books in between, and the start of the story itself. I had a bit of a harder time getting in to it, but once I did, I was sucked in and wanted to know what would happen to the family.

It is a relatively short book to include so many perspectives and cover so much time — something like 60 years. As a result, it felt, in many ways, like glimpses into the lives of the characters as they deal ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 27, 2019 Kara rated it really liked it

Shelves: middle-east, fiction

Intergenerational novel that explores connections to family and place and what happens when those ties are severed by war multiple times over. Despite conflict being almost omnipresent, this story is as much about marriage, parenthood and the desires of youth as it is about trauma.

Like · see review