“The sea was like another member of the household, a recalcitrant child at times, a soothing aunt at others. She crooned them awake; she crooned them to sleep. Everywhere, there was the smell of salt.” — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“The world was addicted to watching; over and over, they were reborn, made whole and silver and resplendent, only to crumple into themselves again. Each time felt like the first time, the destruction so immense it bordered on the majestic. Souad watched the dust-fogged streets, people’s panicked faces as they shrieked for those they loved. She felt her heart move… — Hala Alyan Copy Share
“He can feel their eyes upon him. Poor innocent things, he thinks. What is a life? A series of yeses and noes, photographs you… — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“It started off as ordinary, a little boy fretting. Abdullah asked only Riham, who’d become Mama, soothing him when he woke from nightmares. She… — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“But he loves the mosque for its dusty smell, for the carpet prickling his feet, for the predictable hum of the muezzin more than… — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“Atef wants to tell his children that they don’t understand, that their view from the sidelines is incomplete, that somehow in the murky cave… — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“Parallel lives, she sometimes thinks. It was a matter of parallel lives, one person having lamb for supper, the other cucumbers. With fate deciding,… — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“where your father was from. America wasn’t like that. You became what you coveted.” — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“She feels the anger quiet into a briny resentment. The bitterness floats like an inkblot in her mind’s eye.” — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“She winds her hair into a bun, tilts her long neck back, and parts her lips. It is like watching someone paint the sky.” — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“grandmother’s building. When she was in bed sometimes, her small heart pounding just before she fell into sleep, she felt an endless plummet, as… — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
“That night, when she saw too late her mistake, all those moments that make love and destroy it. Her younger self, almost a mother,… — Hala Alyan Copy Share Image
