Salt Houses: A Virtual Reading Group

Dates: April 27, 2024

Time: 5 pm (Dubai)

Registration Fee: 25 AED 

Language: English

Location: Online via Zoom

In this online reading group that meets over Zoom, participants will discuss Salt Houses by Hala Alyan. The session will start with a brief overview of the author and the story, providing context for the literature. We will delve into close readings of specific texts during the session. The floor will be open for reflection and discussion and participants are encouraged to share passages they enjoyed. Participants are encouraged to read the book before the session. The meeting will last approximately 90 minutes. 

Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses follows three generations of a Palestinian family and asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again. Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, 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 uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967.