"In poem after poem, there is raw emotion, straightforward
storytelling, and unapologetic truth." (NPR)
There exists, within [Alyan's] poems, the cacophony that pervades
our most intimate of relationships, a glistering sheen covering even the
most banal interactions. Her poems feel as familiar as the prayers we
make up in our own minds...they're a quiet triumph, sacred and profane,
and, most of all, grounded in humanity." (Nylon)
You're Not a Girl in a Movie is a new collection of powerful poems by
Hala Alyan, winner of the Arab American Book Award in Poetry and the
Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In these nine extraordinary poems, Alyan
wrestles with the intimate themes that have driven her acclaimed body of
work to date: the aching loss of homeland, the image and worth of women,
and the violence of love. In Beirut, Brooklyn, and roads in the American
West, she unravels the effects of decades of war and displacement on
love and human worth and identity. She speaks to mothers and
grandmothers, past lovers and friends, and through her shimmering,
wrenching glimpses of internal and political chaos, pleads for home.
