Our Cut of Salt

De: Deena Helm

In this lyrical debut, three generations of Palestinian women must put the haunting of their ancestral home to rest, before the secrets of the past drown them all. Our Cut of Salt is a powerful and intimate look at what it means to make a home, to lose it, and to return, only to find it irrevocably changed.

There is something haunting Nuhad’s childhood home in Haifa. Cats avoid its perimeter, strange noises come from within, and residents have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Although Nuhad has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, she always held a place for the house in her heart.

And, in return, the house did the same for her.

After Nuhad passes away, her granddaughter, Marina, is determined to visit her grandmother’s home after a lifetime of being kept in the dark about her culture and family history. Marina's mother, Haifa - named for the city that was lost to their family - reluctantly agrees to her trip, though she knows firsthand that some secrets are better left buried.

But the house is no longer a home. It is a painful, festering wound that infects everything it touches. The more Marina digs into her family’s past, the sicker she becomes. Despite Nuhad’s ghostly warnings, Haifa rushes to help her daughter.

As the three women converge in their ancestral home, they must put the haunting to rest before the secrets of the past drown them all.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Lyrical and terrifying, Helm’s portrait of generational trauma will leave you aching in its wake. Our Cut of Salt is not just a powerful exploration of injustice and survival, but also a testament to the power of love.” —Monika Kim, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Eyes are the Best Part

“Devastating....Our Cut of Salt rages and aches and demands your complete attention, recontextualizing the very notion of what a haunted house is, positioning itself alongside such modern marvels of horror as Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I'm Worthless and Tananarive Due’s The Good House.” —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

“Our Cut of Salt is a raw and affecting dive into family secrets and the buried past in the best gothic haunted house tradition. Honest, heartfelt and gripping!” —Bitter Karella, author of Moonflow

“Deena Helm is a generational talent and voice, immediately in conversation with Shirley Jackson and Stephen Graham Jones…It’s a testament to Helm’s mastery of the craft that this book is horrifying even in its quiet moments…Painfully timely and poignant.” —Megan Bontrager, author of The Sea Hides its Dead