Hala Alyan's new novel is Salt Houses. From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:Q: You've said that your novel started as a short story. At what point did you decide you would write a novel about your characters, the Yacoub family?Visit Hala Alyan's website.
A: I don’t know that I ever actually made the active decision to write a novel. The very term terrified me and whenever I described what I was writing, I used the phrase “longer project.”
Rather, I think that I just became very curious about the other family members and was excited to try to give them each a chance to tell their story. I kept chasing that desire until, eventually, I had accidentally written a novel!
Q: You write from the viewpoints of many different members of the family. Were there particular characters you particularly enjoyed writing about?
A: I loved writing Linah’s chapter, because the perspective of a child is such a challenging thing to replicate. I also always enjoyed writing about Alia and Souad: their decades-long bickering was always enjoyable to...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue