The Arsonists' City is a stunning book that immediately drew me in by both its cover and first chapter. This was family saga at its best.

The patriarch of the Nasr family, Idris, is ready to sell his ancestral family home in Beirut. Wife, Mazna, calls their grown children to fly to Beirut in hopes that they will convince him not to sell. The children, grown and living in various parts of the world, have their own challenges in life to tackle but agree to spend summer in Beirut. As the family gathers, the secrets that have long been buried by the physical distance between them return to the surface. And each is faced person is faced with what secrets should be kept and what should be shared, even in your own family.

I was completely absorbed by this book. The author does a tremendous job of starting the book with the tragic moment that changes the life of Idris and Mazna and then brilliantly weaves their own backstory in with the stories of their children and their struggles. I really appreciated learning more about the Lebanese and Syrian relations, a subject I admittedly know very little about so I found myself doing more research about the political and religious history of those countries.

I highly recommend this book. It will be one of my top reads for 2021.

Loved this book so much. As an Arab Canadian, I love reading stories about my culture and I related to this story so much. Hala Alyan is an incredibly talented writer. Highly recommend.

This is the story of the Nasr family, separated by familial circumstances and are brought together when the patriarch Idris decides to sell his family home in Beirut. With this news the entire family decides to go back there for the summer.

We meet Ava, Mimi and Naj, who have scattered all over the United States to follow their dreams and loves. Each sibling is struggling with different things in their lives, which makes the timing of this trip all too perfect.

Alyan weaves a complex family narrative that goes into detail how Idris meets his wife, and the secrets that they hold and weaves seamlessly into each of the children’s stories. Each character has a unique voice with a unique story that blends into a beautiful story.

If you love epic family stories, this book will fit the bill, providing all the emotions that you would expect from this type of story. It felt completely genuine throughout and all I wanted was to spend a little more time with these characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early read of this fantastic book!

I really enjoyed this story of the Nasr family, which is a tale that spans two generations of the Nasr’s, an Arab-American family. First we meet the Nasr children, each at a turning point in their lives. Ava, living in Brooklyn with her husband (who she has just learned has cheated on her) and her children. Mimi, the middle child and only son, living in Austin, working in a restaurant by day and playing in a band by night, reluctant to commit fully to his girlfriend of ten years. And Naj, living in their home city of Beirut, her band an international sensation. Their father wants to hold a memorial service for his father in their family home in Beirut. He also wants to sell the family home, much to the consternation of his wife and children. The second storyline tells the story of the parents – Idris, from Beirut, and Mazna, from Damascus. It goes back to the summer they met, and a man named Zakaria who changed both of their lives forever.

When the family meets in Beirut, there is a reckoning of sorts. About the meaning of home, and feeling at home in your own skin. About how much and how little we know about the people who mean the most to us. And how to accept each other, secrets and all.

I really liked this book. The book really revolves around the mother, Mazna – about her heartaches, her dreams, her compromises, and about the different relationships she has with each of her children. The dynamic between the siblings is so well portrayed. And is often the case, it is a funeral that brings everyone together, cracks things open, and allows a kind of healing to begin. It reminded me of the Leonard Cohen quote – “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”. I highly recommend this great read.

Splitting most of its time between mid-century and modern day Beirut, The Arsonists' City tells the story of the Nasr family and their wealth of family secrets. After the violent death of a dear friend in a refugee camp in the 1960s, the elder Nasrs married and relocated to America. In present day, the patriarch, Idris, has decided to finally sell the family home still standing in Beirut. For the first time in years, the whole family, including the three Arab-American adult children, reconvene in Lebanon to prepare for the sale. While all under one roof, tensions rise and damaging secrets are revealed. 

I love a good family drama. The Arsonists' City kept me engaged and curious throughout. I recently read and loved Alyan's first novel, Salt Houses, and I am again blown away by her careful character development and nuanced relationship building. Alyan's characters are beautifully flawed. The matriarch, Mazna, is so vibrant - beautiful, difficult, strong-willed, passionate and at times cruel. Each of her children inherit some of her spark, especially the youngest, the free-spirited rockstar, Naj; her scenes just drip with cool.

This book is introspective and thoughtful and messy, just the way I like it. It's action-packed and emotional, which can be overwhelming at times. I'll say the ending was a touch on the nose, but it also served the Nasr family story well.

I'm really not sure what to do with this one. The prose was exquisite. Beautiful. And the character development was excellent, I really connected to the characters. But for some reason, the story just...dragged.

The Goodreads description says it's 464 pages, and I'm not sure if the advanced copy I received was longer than that, but I swear it had to be. Just when I was really into it and it was moving along, we'd change perspectives or start a new "part" and it would just STOP. The author would give five metaphors for something that needed one or two. We'd get a tedious amount of background for something that we could've just inferred on our own.

But still, I found myself truly moved at time. And I think it's one that I'll remember from time to time. So, I really don't know how to classify this one. I give it 3-3.5.

Really, really well written and pulls us in, in a unique way. I must confess I fell enough in love w/ Ava so it was hard for me to shift out of her perspective into that of the other siblings or the mother, but midway into Mimi's piece I was sympathetic to him too. Loved the navigation of many themes with a patient, observing, unrushed eye that nevertheless holds the thread of the story skillfully, pressing forward.

DNF at 34%

Unfortunately this is starting to feel like a chore to read and it's not really holding my interest. The prologue really caught my interest and I had high hopes for this book, but Part I really dragged. It feels like a lot of set-up for a family drama, but it doesn't seem like we're going to hit any family drama until around the 50%-60% mark, and the 200 pages you have to slog through to get there doesn't feel worth it. When the time period changed in Part II, I was hoping that I would be more intrigued by the story, but I didn't find Mazna to be a very compelling narrator.

I do think that maybe I'm putting the book right as it's going to get interesting—after all, Mazna is just meeting Idris and will likely meet the narrator of the prologue, Zakaria, in the next few pages. So perhaps the better choice would be to just push through, but unfortunately I am just not going to be able to manage it.

Since this is a DNF, I will not be giving feedback on websites other than Netgalley.

This story was such a gripping and complex story detailing the rawness of being a member of a family and grappling with loss, love, and defining home. Hala Alyan is a beautiful novelist and I can’t wait to reach of more of their stories.

« I remember how she said it, like it was a joke, like it was all games. People get older, they forget how brutal youth is. How dangerous it can be. »

The Arsonists’ City is a slow-paced, character driven book, which should make it not my kind of read. But I had a feeling that I would enjoy this one, as I saw in the summary a few similarities with some of my favorite books. I was so right to request this!

Every once in a while I read a book that reminds me how much I love life stories and reading about people who are older than me. I enjoy following the characters through different stages of their life, seeing them evolve, grow or regress. The last book I read that gave me this feeling was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and strangely, it has a few things in common with The Arsonists’ City.

The story is told from multiple points of view. Mazna, the mother, is given the most pages and is probably the character we know the most about. Her children, Ava, Mimi and Naj, get their own chapters too and are beautifully fleshed-out characters. It would be impossible in one little review to develop every wonderful aspect about The Arsonists’ City, because there is so much in this book. But the characters are probably the one thing that stands out. How flawed, relatable they are. How each of their relationships with one another is unique.

These characters and Hala Alyan’s beautiful prose managed to make me feel a hundred different emotions while I was reading. The book made me sad, it made me angry and frustrated, filled me with joy and destroyed me again. Mazna’s character is probably the one I connected with the most because we see her as a young girl, and watch her become a woman and grow older. The kind of connection I had with her was very different from the one I had with Ava, Mimi and Naj, and that’s one reason why the POV changes were a good thing in my opinion. While I was going from past to present and back again, I was not expecting the same things from the chapters, and really loved how the structure made this even more enjoyable. Ava, Mimi and Naj each brought something special to the book with their very singular personalities, issues and desires. I have a soft spot for Naj, who’s the only one who lives in Beirut and is a successful musician and a lesbian, but I loved Mimi and Ava too! They each had their own storyline which made them interesting and essential to the novel.

As someone who loves historical fiction, but more specifically stories set in the 20th century, I was really invested in all the chapters that took place in Damascus and Beirut in the sixties and seventies, and the ones in America in the eighties and nineties. This is obviously not a history book, but it was so nice to get small pieces of history here and there, and to see how the events changed things for the characters. How the war played a part in the family’s history. I loved the general idea that no matter how hard the characters tried to cut themselves off from the place they grew up in, they eventually always came back to it.

There were many other things to enjoy in The Arsonists’ City. The fact that this is a story about family and love, but also about injustice, about womanhood, about understanding, betrayal and forgiveness. A story about time and the scars it leaves, about mistakes you made and how you will never get to go back. It’s about making the most of the life you have and trying not to get lost in the “what ifs” and the “should haves”.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and know it will stay with me for a long time!


Trigger warnings: war, exile, death, loss, cheating, sexism and misogyny, sexual assault, drug and alcohol consumption, illness, racism, pregnancy and childbirth, use of slurs (some of them reclaimed), homophobia, hate crime.

This is an adult book that contains strong language and sex.

A true family drama, in which it seems the family itself is the protagonist as the individual members develop and the family unit as a whole ultimately comes of age.

Author Hala Alyan establishes the individual stories of Mazna, Idris and their three children, leading the reader through time and across continents, from 1960s Damascus and Beirut, to California in the 70s and 80s, to present-day Brooklyn and Austin, before ending up back in Beirut.

Each shift in perspective builds upon the previous, creating a full and complex picture that only takes full shape in Part V.

I loved Alyan's portrayal of how a family harbors secrets from one another yet their resolution comes not from fully revealing these to one another, but in each one fully acknowledging their own truths.

Set against the backdrop of a region where war shifts countries and displaces people forever adds yet another dimension to this rich and insightful character-based story.

“I think people deserve to have their secrets.”

Spanning the years between the 1960s and present day, this layered, multi-generational story of the Nasr family is complex in characters and settings. Idris (Lebanese medical student) and Mazna (Syrian actress) escape to America under asylum for Idris' surgical residency in the wake of his best friend Zakaria's (Palestinian pastry chef) death. Settled in Blythe, California the couple must learn to navigate through this new landscape and their new lives. Many years later, when Idris' father dies, Idris and Mazna want their children to return with them to Idris' family home in Beirut for a memorial service and to sell the house. The three siblings (Ava, a scientist living in Brooklyn, Marwan "Mimi", a renowned chef and guitarist living in Austin, and Najla "Naj", a world-traveling musician based in Beirut) have complicated relationships with each other and each parent. The tensions, resentments, and jealousies build throughout the entire story and each secret unfurls as the summer comes to an end--some secrets become known to the entire family and some to the reader alone. Reading this 464-page novel is a commitment that requires patience. The pacing is slow (but never dull) because author Hala Alyan wants to fully immerse you into the worlds of these flawed characters.


A few notes:
Formatting: In my eARC the timeline jumps and character shifts between sections made reading a bit confusing. Hopefully the final copies will have these sections labeled with which character's POV we are about to read from and the date.
Cover/title: I feel that this cover and title don't match the story... in very much the same way "The Last Romantics" (another family saga) was mismatched. I think something more along the lines of "The Beirut House" with the cover photo of a home's courtyard and almond trees or the city itself would be a better fit.

Like her debut Salt Houses, Hala Alyan crafts another engrossing family saga that deals with similar themes of love, sacrifice, family, and displacement. When the patriarch of the Nasr family passes, the fate of the family's house in Beirut rests in the hands of the eldest Nasr son, Idris, who is determined to sell it. His wife Mazna voices her opposition and attempts to recruit their three children (Ava, Mimi, and Naj) to her dissenting team. When the family convenes at the house in Beirut, they navigate the tension that arises from sharing close quarters and confronting the secrets, betrayals, and things left unsaid in the family's past.

The first portion of this book centers on the three children and the dynamics at play in each of their relationships. There is love, jealousy, camaraderie, rivalry, resentment, all of the standard feelings shared between siblings. The later portions in the book explore Mazna's backstory which I found to be the most compelling pieces to this story. Alyan really allows space for each character to blossom. Ultimately, this novel is a moving meditation on memory and how we carry the past

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for gifting me with an ARC of The Arsonists’ City. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

This is a novel, epic in scope which both delivered and fell short in certain aspects.
Told in dual timelines set in 1970’s Lebanon and present day USA, this story focuses on Idris & Mazna and their three grown children.
When Idris decides to sell the ancestral home in Beirut, his wife and children find the idea upsetting, even though their lives are all scattered far away from Lebanon, that house is their home. Hoping to talk their father out of selling, they agree to join him and their mother in Beirut to dissuade him from making a terrible mistake. Once the family is reunited in Beirut jealousies, secrets, and old resentments arise for each of them.
I found the backstory of 1970’s Lebanon fascinating and I really loved learning about the country, culture, history and politics. The descriptions were rich and vivid, clearly Hala Alyan has spent significant time in the Middle East and it was evident her love and passion are deeply connected to that region. Mazna and Idris’ story arch was engaging and compelling.

It was the slow, drawn out buildup of the three children, that felt cliche, recycled and tedious. The author threw so many tropes into the storyline, most did not add to the narrative, only the page count. This book felt way longer than necessary and the pacing felt unbalanced. Unfortunately, the big reveals were easy to guess early on and therefore I was frustrated by the enormous page count. I think with extra editing this could have been much more satisfying story.

When his father dies, Idris decides to sell the family home in Beruit bringing all of his children from around the globe out of the woodwork to protest. The story alternates between Lebanese Idris and his Syrian wife Mazna's story in the past and the lives of their various children in the present, which culminates in a big reunion in Beruit.

I really enjoyed the story of Idris and Mazna. It was sad and riveting. I was less enthralled with the sections about their children, whose characters and stories failed to draw me in. The last section where they are all in Beruit was rewarding, with unexpected twists and a nice arc to the story.

Awesome! This book has dynamic characters a believable plot and superb writing. The Arsonists’ City is an engaging read. It quickly transitions to an immigrant, family saga. The matriarch and patriarch of the family are the product of an old world arranged marriage. Mazna is a guilt dispensing mamma to be sure and father, Idris, is a cardiologist with heart trouble of his own and an iron fisted, hands off approach to family. I loved it!

I really enjoyed this novel set between Syria, Lebanon and America in the 1970’s to present-day. The novel follows the Nasr family in America in the present day and goes back to how Idris and Mazna first met
In Beirut and how war changes their lives and the decisions that they make.

I liked the perspectives from all the characters in the novel and it was very engaging and easy to read. There is trigger warnings for abortion, severe assault and war.

Idris' decision to sell the family home in Beirut does what nothing else has- it unites his family against him. This is a modern saga of a family that moves between the near past of the 1970s and 2019 and between the US, Lebanon, and Syria. Ava, a scientist, and musicians Mimi, and Naj- the children of Mazna and Idris- all provide their third person perspectives as the family heads to Beirut. Mazna's story is told only in the past. Each of these people has a secret but Mazna and Idris have the biggest secret of all. You might like one sibling more than another (and don't forget their partners- loved Harper) but each of them with all their flaws and drama feels very real. Mazna is more of a challenge to like and, to be honest, the real cipher here is Idris, who is only seen through others. Alyan doesn't linger on or attempt to explain the politics and religious strife of the region and era but focuses on its impact on a family. There are tough moments and then some very light ones (wait til the real estate agent appears!). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's an excellent read.

This book was beautiful and from the prologue I was entranced. It’s a difficult book to summarize, but it is so unique and full of the mess that is family. Told from various perspectives of the Nasr family in both the past and present. I loved that this story was from a perspective I don’t see often - it was about an Arab American family (including hints of the racism they encountered) and where they came from. Beirut is a place I’ve never been to and honestly I don’t think I’ve ever experienced through literature and it was an adventure I enjoyed. It wasn’t always pleasant this war torn place, but it had it’s own beauty and I enjoyed getting to see that glimpse. The Nasr family may live all over but tying them to their roots is the ancestral home in Beirut but Idris has decided to let go of the past and sell it which brings him, his wife, and the two of their children not already in Beirut rushing back to their home for the summer. Past and present and secrets all collide in such a beautiful way. I will be definitely be reading more from Hala Alyan.

Family dramas can be some of the most compelling stories around… or the most tedious. I wasn’t sure what to expect when the description for Hala Alyan’s upcoming The Arsonists’ City first caught my attention, but the premise was enough to draw me in: the father wishes to sell his own father’s ancestral home in Beirut while his wife and children are opposed to the move. Hala Alyan’s tale most definitely fell into the former category of family drama for me. Largely a tale of secrets, hopes, and disappointments, The Arsonists’ City packed emotional punches on every front, taking predictable plot twists and leading them down unfamiliar paths to avoid the usual clichés.

When Idris Nasr’s father passes away, he decides the time has come to sell the family home in Beirut. But his wife, Mazna, opposes the idea and wields all the guilt she can muster to get her two oldest children to travel to Beirut with them. Ava is a biology professor and mother of two young children having marital problems. Mimi is a restaurant manager who still dreams of hitting it big with his band despite so many others moving on to other dreams. Their youngest sister, Najla, is already in Beirut and reluctant to have the rest of them visit, having moved there for university before deciding to stay for good and embrace her own musical success and the safe distance from her judging (and occasionally resentful). Having the entire family (and extended family) in the same place for the first time in years forces each of them to confront the problems in their own lives and leaves long-buried secrets peeking out of the dirt, tempting further excavation.

So much of the story and the characters’ lives ultimately centers around disappointment. The resentments that color their relationships with one another are ultimately rooted in elusive and thwarted dreams, in petty (but entirely relatable) jealousies. The narrative shows how these threads play out for each of the siblings as it alternates between their third-person perspectives throughout the chapters set in the novel’s present timeline. Contrasting with the tension of the siblings’ present disappointments, Mazna’s perspective. Largely shown through extended flashbacks, initially to her youth in Damascus with the war in Lebanon just across the border, her dreams of becoming a prolific actress are first threatened when she meets Idris and he introduces her to his lifelong friend, Zakaria. The flashbacks soon progress through the early years of their marriage and their move to California – so close to Los Angeles but not close enough, a perfect metaphor for the opportunities she just misses. But there is also a refusal to be inactive or to let her entire sense of self hang on those dreams. And that is ultimately what her children learn by the end of the novel – how to live and move forward and not lose yourself in the disappointments of life.

The ugliness and messiness of family is another thing that can be difficult to get just right but Alyan absolutely nails it. The petty jealousies that are born into sibling relationships, the immaturity that can peek out between couples (and between parents and their children), the fact no one knows the quickest way to push your buttons but also the best ways to comfort you when you’re in pain, to raise you up even when you resent the help or interference. It’s that balance of the good and the bad that makes the Nasr family come alive so vividly and that helped make the predictable moments feel just as earned as the handful of surprises. The story hinges on the characters, on their emotional journeys and the plot respects that, refusing to overshadow them.

The Arsonists’ City will be available to buy on March 9, 2021.