50 pages • 1 hour read
Hala AlyanSalt Houses
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Salma”
Content Warning: This section refers to descriptions of violence and sexual assault.
The novel opens in Nablus in the West Bank of Palestine in March 1963. Salma uses her coffee cup as a divination tool, reading the grounds to ascertain what the future holds for her and her daughter, Alia. As she examines the cup, she thinks back to when she purchased it and why: The tray that the set of cups had come with reminded her of one purchased for her long ago by her mother and lost when she and the family were forced to flee their home.
Salma’s daughter Alia is getting married the following day, and Salma makes last-minute preparations for the ceremony while remembering her other daughter Widad’s marriage 10 years prior. The mood had been decidedly different: Salma’s husband had just died, everyone was grieving, and Widad had cried while the imam was speaking. Widad had also resented her parents’ choice of husband, but Salma knew that the man would take her daughter out of Palestine to Kuwait, where she would be safer.
Salma had several miscarriages. She has three children who survived: Widad, Alia, and Mustafa. Although she loves each of her children, she is especially drawn to Alia, her “child of war” who had been only three in 1948 when the Israeli army had rolled through Jaffa, destroying the town center and burning agricultural land. Salma’s husband, Hussam, had initially wanted to stay but agreed to leave when their orange grove had been set on fire. Salma has never truly felt at home in Nablus, and for years following their arrival, she had hoped to return to Jaffa. Even now that she understands that they will never return, she still pines for her lost home and thinks of their villa in Nablus as the “new” house.
The coffee dregs reveal dire predictions, and although it pains Salma to provide half-truths, she shares with her daughter only the good that she sees and omits the many difficulties. She is especially worried about the form of a zebra that she sees in the grounds but does not mention it aloud. Because she has picked and chosen only the hopeful pieces of the coffee grounds’ predictions, her daughter and the rest of the women gathered smile when they hear what Salma has seen. Alia is a bright and spirited girl, and she is a joyful bride. She represents the younger generation: She is modern, eschews the veil, and favors Western and Egyptian trends. She dearly loves her husband-to-be, Atef, and is excited to be getting married. The wedding is overall a happy affair, although there has been recent conflict with Israeli soldiers in the area. Worries about the future pop up in conversations between multiple groups of guests. Salma frets about her son’s recent arrest after a minor disagreement with an Israeli soldier.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Mustafa”
The second chapter is narrated by Salma’s son Mustafa in Nablus in October 1965. Mustafa teaches arithmetic to teenage pupils at a nearby school. He prefers to walk rather than drive to and from work so that he can clear his head, and on his commute, he runs into his friend Omar. Omar and a group of men are planning to gather at Mustafa’s home later for coffee and shisha, and the two chat briefly before Omar is urged back to work by his boss. Mustafa practices the speech that he will give to the gathered men later that night and continues walking home.
His mother Salma has moved to Jordan, and Mustafa now lives alone in the family home. Alia has been married to Atef for three years. Salma wants Mustafa to marry, but so far, he has been resistant to the idea. At home, Mustafa’s sister Alia stops by and interrupts his silent reverie. She is happily married to Atef, who lets her do largely as she pleases. She is by no means a traditional wife. Alia is a terrible cook and housekeeper and prefers to read, shop, and spend time with her friends and family. Although Alia and Mustafa are close, he keeps secret from her the woman Aya with whom he has a clandestine relationship. Aya is impoverished and grew up in very different circumstances than he and Alia did. He feels that he cannot marry her because no one in his family or community would approve of the match.
Mustafa and his group of male friends from the mosque meet regularly to discuss the occupation and the future of Palestine. Some of them, Mustafa includes, have spent time in jail because of their activism. Mustafa is especially inspired in his political activities by Imam Bakri, a young religious leader whose fiery speeches fill Mustafa with emotion. Imam Bakri grew up in Haifa. His family stayed after the occupation began but left after a group of Israeli soldiers stormed into their house late one night and raped his sister in front of the entire family. He is moved by Imam Bakri’s story, and he is beginning to believe that to end the occupation, he and his fellow men will have to take up arms and fight. Atef, his brother-in-law, agrees, and the two have spent an increasing amount of time together recently discussing politics and next steps. He says as much to the group of men from the mosque, although he is nervous while making his speech.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Alia”
Alia, living in Kuwait City in December 1967, showers as she looks out of a small window into the hot Kuwaiti sunlight. They have been here for four months, and she misses Nablus. She is pregnant, although she has not yet told Atef. He is consumed by his grief over Mustafa and moves through their home like a sleepwalker.
Alia reflects on the events that have transpired since their move. Alia had taken an instant dislike to Kuwait when she arrived due to the intense heat. Her sister Widad, 10 years her senior, bores her, and although her sister’s husband and friends are welcoming, Alia finds them tedious. Widad’s friends lack the vivacity of her social circle in Nablus. They do not smoke, tell dirty jokes, or let loose.
In June 1967, in the days leading up to what was supposed to have been Alia’s return to Nablus, the Israelis invade Sinai. The war unfolds, for both Alia’s family and others across the Middle East, on television. Each day, they watch the situation in Palestine grow worse and worse. Unbeknownst to Alia and Widad, Mustafa and Atef are arrested during the first days after the Israelis storm Palestine. The war ends quickly, with the Egyptian President Nasser announcing the Arab defeat. Atef comes to join her in Kuwait City after the war begins, and although Alia still hopes for their stay to be temporary, Atef accepts a local university professorship. The two set up their own home, and their exile begins to feel permanent.
Alia and Widad throw a large New Year’s Eve party at the end of 1967 and although everyone seems to enjoy themselves, the men gather outside to talk about the war, and Alia is not entirely able to take her mind off her brother Mustafa’s death. He died in an Israeli prison, although the family did not find out exactly how. She and Atef are both still consumed by grief.
Alia is increasingly preoccupied with thoughts of Amman: She wants to join her mother and many of their other friends and family in Jordan. Amman is bustling, full of crowded shops and cafes, and more modern than Kuwait City. It also lacks Kuwait’s stifling, constant heat. She thinks that Atef might be persuaded, but when she tries to talk to him about moving, he becomes agitated. He does not want to live amongst their old friends and neighbors. He worries that in Amman, it would be easy to remain mired in grief. He sees Kuwait as a fresh start and suggests that Alia begin to spend her summers in Kuwait. As she looks at her husband’s frenzied face, she realizes that “he believes that Kuwait will save him” (70) and understands that their future, unfortunately, will be in Kuwait City and not in Amman.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Chapters 1-3 ground the narrative in the key themes of Familial Bonds in Exile and Displacement and Diaspora as well as within the broader history of the Palestinian diaspora. All of the characters face the impact of displacement and life in the diaspora, and in these chapters in particular, Salma’s and Alia’s responses to forced migration are at the center of the narrative. Because war and conflict weave their way through so many of these chapters, Alyan introduces the way that such traumatic events shape not only Palestinian history but Palestinian identity in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Salma’s opening chapter establishes the strong family bonds that will eventually support the Yacoubs in exile. The very first scenes in this novel are of weddings, which in Palestinian culture are large, family-focused events marked by both ceremonies and festive celebrations. Salma, the family’s matriarch, reflects on the marriage of both of her daughters, Souad and Widad. She can be observed following multiple different Palestinian pre-wedding traditions including divination using coffee grounds, henna applications, and the sugaring ritual. She is surrounded by a large network of friends and family, and it is clear that her social world is supportive and closely knit. She cares deeply for her children and wants nothing but happiness for them.
The calm security of these moments, however, will be interrupted, and there are several key moments of foreshadowing within the first chapter. The first moment of foreshadowing is her prediction itself. The coffee grounds tell her that her daughter will have a difficult life. Although she chooses not to share the worst of what she sees with Alia on her wedding day, she is unsettled. Other moments of foreshadowing include Salma’s remembrance of having chosen a foreign husband for her daughter Widad at her wedding: She had wanted Widad to be taken out of Palestine, where she would be safer. This memory speaks to the general climate of precarity for Palestinians in Palestine, and the danger will only increase as the narrative progresses. At Alia’s wedding, there is semi-hushed talk of politics and political upheaval amongst the guests, and there is speculation that the Israeli army will begin to stir up more trouble. All of these moments of foreshadowing introduce the migration that the family will be forced to undergo multiple times during the next half-century, and it is through this anxiety about the future that Alyan introduces the theme of Displacement and Diaspora. The family’s peace will be shattered time and time again. Salma has never adjusted to life in Nablus and will soon be forced to leave Palestine entirely. Alia will flee Nablus, where she was happy, and will struggle in Kuwait. Like her mother, she will never adjust to her adopted city. Alia is very much aware of the difficulty of displacement, and she “feels a pang of sorrow for the older generation, the men and women who still remember the desert before all the construction. It reminds her of aunts and uncles in Nablus who spoke of a Palestine before the big war, before soldiers and exodus” (74). Alia’s reflections indicate the pain of displacement and diaspora for Palestinian people, but they also point to the central role that family will take for members of the Palestinian diaspora: it is through her family, her aunts and uncles, that Alia and her children will be able to remain connected with the homeland they have lost.
The other effect that these moments of foreshadowing have is to introduce The Psychological Impact of War and Trauma. Salma’s worries about the safety of her children in Palestine, her personal history of forced migration, and the background chatter about Israeli soldiers at the wedding demonstrate the massive role that conflict has played (and continues to play) not only in shaping Palestinian history but the everyday lives and identities of Palestinian people. It is impossible completely to escape war and its impact, and even early in this narrative it becomes obvious that war will affect each generation of the Yacoub family. Chapter 3 makes this impact concrete, as the loss of Mustafa in the Six-Day War reshapes the Yacoub family. The chapter also foreshadows the way that Atef has been permanently changed as a person by his experiences during the war through Alia’s observations of his changed behavior before and after the Six-Day War.
In addition to introducing the three main themes, the novel grounds itself within the real, tragic history of Palestine. The family’s original home had been Jaffa, an ancient port city that, although not the official capital of Palestine, had been the center of Arab culture and society. During the Nakba of 1948, the Yacoub’s orchards had been burned by Israelis, and they were forced to flee. This is a historically accurate depiction of the kinds of displacement that characterized the Nakba, and the Yacoub family’s experiences reflect the real-life experiences of many Palestinians. After the Nakba, Jaffa was absorbed into greater Tel Aviv and the Israelis renamed it, erasing the history of the people who called it home. The Nakba is seen as a profound moment of collective trauma, and many contemporary Palestinians trace modern Palestinian identity, which is rooted in precarity, loss, and displacement, to the Nakba. That the Yacoub family was a victim of this event and that they were evicted from their home in the heart of Arab culture in Palestine grounds this narrative within the history of the entire Palestinian diaspora. It is a moment of connection with the rest of Alyan’s writings, all of which in some way speak to the experiences of diasporic Palestinian communities.
