Mother of All Pigs

The Sabas family lives in a small Jordanian town that for centuries has been descended upon by all manner of invader, the latest a scourge of disconcerting Evangelical tourists. The border town relies on a blackmarket trade of clothes, trinkets, and appliances -- the quality of which depends entirely on who's fighting -- but the conflict in nearby Syria has the place even more on edge than usual.

Meanwhile, the Sabas home is ruled by women -- Mother Fadhma, Laila, Samira, and now, Muna, a niece visiting from America for the first time -- and it is brimming with regrets and desires. Clandestine pasts in love, politics, even espionage, threaten the delicate balance of order in the household, as generations clash. The family's ostensible patriarch -- Laila's husband Hussein -- enjoys no such secrets, not in his family or in town, where Hussein is known as the Levant's only pig butcher, dealing in chops, sausages, and hams, much to the chagrin of his observant neighbors.

When a long-lost soldier from Hussein's military past arrives, the Sabas clan must decide whether to protect or expose him, bringing long-simmering rivalries and injustices to the surface. Enchanting and fearless, Halasa's prose intertwines the lives of three generations of women as they navigate the often stifling, sometimes absurd realities of everyday life in the Middle East.

Author: Malu Halasa
Publisher: Unnamed Press
Published: 11/14/2017
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781944700348


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/25/2017
Foreword 09/26/2017
Booklist 10/01/2017 pg. 26
Library Journal 11/01/2017 pg. 70

About the Author
Malu Halasa is a Jordanian Filipina American writer and editor based in London. Born in Oklahoma, she was raised in Ohio and is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University. Her books include: Syria Speaks - Art and Culture from the Frontline (2014); Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations (2009); The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design (2008); Kaveh Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran (2007); Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images (2004) and Creating Spaces of Freedom: Culture in Defiance (2002). Mother of All Pigs is her first novel.