Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

"From a dazzling new literary voice, a debut novel about a Palestinian family caught between present and past, between displacement and home ... On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is up rooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Salma is forced to leave her home in Nablus; Alia's brother gets pulled into a politically militarized world he can't escape; and Alia and her gentle-spirited husband move to Kuwait City, where they reluctantly build a life with their three children. When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in1990, Alia and her family once again lose their home, their land, and their story as they know it, scattering to Beirut, Paris, Boston, and beyond. Soon Alia's children begin families of their own, once again navigating the burdens (and blessings) of assimilation in foreign cities. Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses is a remarkable debut novel that challenges and humanizes an age-old conflict we might think we understand--one that asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can't go home again"--

Have I mentioned recently how much I love multigenerational sagas? This one is rich and complex without being too long. It explores the journey of a Palestinian family, the people they marry, the places they live in exile, and the nature of freedom and feminism. I also appreciated that while there are many books that are and should be written about poorer Palestinians stuck as refugees, this book looks at the life of upper-middle-class Palestinians who have the ability to move.

Men play an interesting role in this book; they are there, they are discussed, but with one exception, they fade into the background. It's really about the women - their willfullness, their banal lives, their reactions - and their relationships with one another.

I devoured this book and found myself thinking about it long after I put it down. A story that spans several generations, multiple countries, and a vast network of family members, it is at once global and intimate. I found myself researching a variety of governments, cultures, and world events to better grasp what each character was going through - though this book and its characters stands on its own even without any extra context.

Kuwait Book around the world.

Very much agree with the other two star reviews. This book was very hard to read–not necessarily because of the subject matter but because of the layout. I already have a hard time with POV + Time + Setting shifts but the shifts happened EVERY. SINGLE. CHAPTER. Very hard to follow especially since no one seemed to have a distinctive voice.

Pada malam pernikahan putrinya Alia, Salma membaca masa depan Alia melalui ampas di gelas kopi. Dia melihat masa depan yang tidak pasti untuk Alia dan anak-anaknya, namun dia juga melihat perjalanan dan keberuntungan.
Salma memutuskan untuk menyimpannya sendiri. Namun semua ini terlupakan dengan pecahnya perang enam hari di Palestina tahun 1967 dan mereka tercerabut dari Nablus, padahal mereka tadinya pindah ke Nablus dari Jaffa saat Nakba tahun 1948.
Ini cerita mengenai empat generasi orang Palestina, diceritakan dari sudut pandang tokoh yang berbeda di setiap bab. Setiap bab ditulis dengan urutan kronologis yang runut walau berpindah sudut pandang, dari rentang waktu 1967 hingga 2015.
Cerita dimulai dari Salma & suaminya yang terpaksa meninggalkan segala yang mereka punya di Jaffa, menuju Nablus. Nablus tempat anak-anak Salma tumbuh besar, Widad, Alia & Mustafa.
Pecah perang enam hari di tahun 1967, yang membuat Salma pindah ke Amman, Alia menyusul Widad ke kota Kuwait. Disana Alia membesarkan anak-anaknya, Riham, Karam dan Souad.
Tahun 1990, ketika pecah perang Irak-Kuwait, Souad sedang kuliah di Paris, lagi-lagi Alia harus meninggalkan Kuwait ke rumah peninggalan ibunya di Amman.
Cerita berawal dari Jaffa, Palestina namun berfokus pada perjalanan keluarga ini setelah tercerabut dari akar mereka. Mereka terpaksa mencari “rumah” di negara-negara lain (perjalanan mereka dimulai dari Amman, Kuwait, Paris, Boston, Beirut), namun pada akhirnya, mereka merasa tidak menemukan “rumah” dimanapun.
Awalnya menurutku membosankan, cerita berpindah sudut pandang setiap bab. Namun menjelang akhir buku ini membuatku sedih dan terharu, sungguh menyesakkan. Aku merekomendasikan buku ini pada penggemar kisah keluarga, nilai plusnya, keluarga yang berasal dari Palestina.