The Twenty-Ninth Year

I couldn’t forgive him, so I apologized instead......more

hala alyan, u have mastered the art of saying so much with so little. a study in linguistic economy. even the repeat motifs/phrases/words delight me endlessly. a master of nostalgia and travel and torment!!!!!!!!!......more

I was so entranced by the idea that the 29th year is something particularly transformative in the Islamic culture. Being in my 29th year myself, I wanted to read something that would change my classic American pseudo-dramatic perception--29 is on the cusp of 30, a huge change of life's dynamic, espe......more

If even a tenth of these poems are autobiographical, the poet has done more in just under three decades than I can imagine packing into a lifetime. Questions of factuality aside, Alyan is a skilled, powerful poet, enough to make me love this book even though youthful self absorption and narratives by......more

Alyan is a Palestinian American poet and novelist. I read and enjoyed her last novel, Salt Houses and was pleasantly surprised to hear she is a poet too. This is a solid collection, much of it, about the immigrant experience.......more