Reviews of The Bullet Collection

“A child’s tale, a coming of age story, an immigrant voice and one of the tales from the Brothers Grimm. It’s a bit as if Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury were set in Alameddine’s Koolaids. If Daif’s Dear Mr. Kawabata were told by a 6-year-old girl, or Eloise set in Beirut’s Commodore Hotel and not the Park Plaza. It shows stunningly, profoundly, the depth of the tragedy of Lebanon and offers, so slightly, the hope of salvation.” —The Daily Star, Beirut

“A startlingly insightful tale of female coming-of-age in a time of war….A powerful debut.” —Booklist, starred review

“In Patricia Sarrafian Ward’s The Bullet Collection the madness of war surrounds, overcomes, and nearly kills two young sisters growing up in Beirut during one of the most protracted conflicts of the late 20 ^th century.” —Minneapolis City Pages

“Using fragments of memory and avoiding hard facts until a critical moment, Ward captures the mystery of war, how it just shows up one day and keeps getting worse, and how difficult it is to reconcile the motives of war with any national or religious ideology.” —Chicago Reader

“Ward lyrically communicates how easily the perils of war become mundane. . . . A writer to watch.” —Library Journal

“The Bullet Collection marks the arrival of a major new talent on the literary scene. It has the freshness of a first novel, yet is a work of great maturity and assurance.” —Banipal Magazine

“Ward has produced a powerful story of war and remembrance, bravely diving into the wreckage and bringing back something redemptive.” —Harvard Review

“A deeply personal coming-of-age novel. . . . Good memories and bad can be equally haunting, and even when Ward writes of despair, her prose is lyrically poetic. —Saudi Aramco World

“This is a truly incredible novel about the scars of war that are left on the hearts of a family living in exile. . . . A stunning, insightful book that examines the tragedy of Lebanon—a window on the even greater catastrophe of war itself.” —The Sanford Herald

“The Bullet Collection provides a different kind of satisfaction, carving out a new narrative in a familiar setting…Lyrical and haunting.” —Arab Studies Journal