Our Cut of Salt

I am not a big student of history outside of literature, but I love learning it and going down rabbit holes in this way. Which is to say, in part, I am no political scientist, and I know only high-level the history of {hand wavy, not dismissively, but in a “it’s a lot” kind of way} everything over there (mostly Palestine, in this case) so I am not going to try to explain it to you, but know that it is important to the experiences of the women in Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm.  

Our Cut of Salt is about a haunted house and its connection to the three generations of women whose beings are shaped by the trauma around the Nakba (the day in 1948 when almost all Palestinians were permanently displaced): Nuhad, who grew up in the house in Haifa, her daughter Haifa (named after the city Nuhad loved), and her granddaughter Marina. 

Marina feels like she doesn’t know anything about her family’s life before America, and when her grandmother dies, she decides to visit her Palestinian homeland where she learns the depth of her family’s tragic history. 

The flashbacks to Nuhad’s childhood and the actual events the day of the Nakba are some of the most upsetting scenes I’ve read in recent memory, and I just finished an Eric LaRocca book, so…

Between the chapters are rage-fueled poetic interludes representing not only the angry spirits which haunt the house in Haifa but for all the people and the land herself. They are beautiful and sad. 

As heartbreaking and horrific as Our Cut of Salt is, it is also full of love, seen from these women for each other and their lost homeland. And, importantly for this horror-lover, it has some legitimately haunted house-style scary moments. 

I listened to this on audiobook, and it was like I was at a poetry reading. Victoria Nassif narrated it beautifully, and the Macmillan Audio production, as usual, was very good. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the review copy.