Reviews of A House at the Edge of Tears

“[Khoury-Ghata] untangles her brother’s story…Words roll like pebbles in a river as sentences open like umbrellas.” —Beirut Daily Star, Top 10 Book of 2005

“Khoury-Ghata paints an effectively stylized picture of tyrannical psychosis as it destroys a family, informed by the larger destruction of Lebanese society during the protracted civil war.” —Publishers Weekly

“In this small, poetic novel resides the fury, despair, shame, and love of a book ten times its size.” —Library Journal

“Haunting scenes unfold like a spider’s silken thread.” —The Sanford Herald (North Carolina)

“I found A House at the Edge of Tears stunning and provocative, compelling and haunting.  Vénus Khoury-Ghata has weaved like a lace maker the story of her brother, herself, her family, and a society far removed from any bland ideal...using the finest, poetic, hypnotic prose which pricks you like needles.” —Hanan al-Shaykh