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It is very rare in today's era of media saturation about issues like the refugee crisis, that a book can make you reflect on all that you think you know about the issue. Salt Houses by Hala Alyan is one such book.
Salt Houses offers a poetic take on the human cost of conflict – refugees. The novel follows the life of Alia, a young Palestinian refugee and her family, as they become refugees, time and again, due to the conflicts plaguing the Middle East.
The story opens in 1963, when Salma, Alia's mother, is reading coffee dregs before Alia's wedding to predict her future. Salma sees displacement and travel in the cup and becomes concerned. To protect her daughter from this news, she falsifies her prediction.
But her prediction comes true in the form of the Six Day War – and later, the Iraq-Kuwait war.
The story switches between characters – Alia, her brother, her children – to create a picture of a family that has been uprooted over and over due to circumstances beyond their control. The idea of displacement, longing and memories dominates the plot.
Another important theme in the novel is the idea of rebuilding. Salt Houses illustrates how the act of rebuilding something, even if it is completely insignificant, matters to people who have lost their home. Salma, for instance, toils for months to create her own garden. Her feelings upon seeing the garden begin blooming after months of hard work and despair are illustrated in this passage:
The poetic descriptions by Hala Alyan lift the book to another level. A Palestinian-American poet, Alyan's gift with words is reflected in the story's passages.
A Palestinian refugee camp and its inhabitants, near the outskirts of the city of Nablus, are described as follows –
Objects, and the memories that get associated with them also play a significant part in the novel. But the most important thing about the story is the theme of longing and displacement that it echoes.
The whole idea of being refugees is an abstract one to most of us. Having never been in their position, we cannot imagine even a shred of what they face. For us, the images of people fleeing their homes and surviving at camps are heartbreaking – but ultimately, often forgettable. Salt Houses, with its cross-generational take on conflict, loss of identity and the idea of homeland, tries to express what a refugee goes through. It tries to bring us closer to their experiences and feelings.
Today, when the crises in Syria and Yemen continue, when developed countries keep arguing over providing asylum to migrants, and, world over, communities keep fleeing their country to avoid persecution, Salt Houses paints a moving story of conflict and rebuilding.
(Priyale Chandra is a freelance journalist. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Convergent Journalism from AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia. Her areas of interest include literature, international relations and history. She can be reached @PriyaleChandra)
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