Salt Houses

The way that forced displacement has impacted the Palestinian diaspora is this novel’s most important and overt theme. Additionally, it is a theme that runs through all of Alyan’s work and connects her writing to not only her own family’s history but also the history of the Palestinian people in the 20th and 21st centuries. Within this narrative, Alyan explores the impact of forced displacement initially through the difficulty that so many of the characters experience as they try to adjust to a series of new cities. She also depicts the sense of cultural dislocation that the Yacoub family experiences in exile and the various ways they try to maintain a connection to Palestine.

Salma’s generation is the first to be forced out of their home by Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas. Although at first, the family relocates to another city within Palestine, Salma never truly adjusts. The bustling, ancient port city of Jaffa had been the center of Arab culture in the region, and she does not feel at home inland, in neighboring Nablus. Even when they have lived in Nablus for a decade, Salma struggles to think of it as home: “In Salma’s mind this remains the new house, this Nablus house” (10).