Sarah’s Reviews > The Arsonists' City > Status Update

Part two done and I’m heartbroken and grieving and my heart has been tugged every last way —
what a genuine writing on desire, life, love, lust, grief, friendship, kinship, the female experience, war and politics and social life — so eloquently and naturally and brilliantly by Alyan. The jump in time (a mini story in itself) so meaningful to the past before it, the future after it, & the present we return to

the brilliance of Alyan is culminating in the “Road to Damascus” — everything piecing together like little clicks for the reader; the prologue unfurling itself slowly, tense but exciting — and I LOVE that we are meeting this all through Mazna

political context flows into the writing and setting so authentically

the ease of borders has been making me envious but saddened as its bound to end

Less than 20 pages have me SOBBING in a heartwarming way — how beautiful this coming of age section for Mazna is, especially after we meet her as a mother in part I, now to meet her as a child — to be transfixed into the key moment she became transfixed with theatre, to see her mother and her family dynamics

Mazna did indeed break my heart at the end of this section, I cannot wait for the rest of part II

Okay wow part one done, lyrical prose singing and aching and dancing; and what a beautiful setup of the siblings & family
• the prologue shattered me however let’s start there
• Alyan knows how to introduce not characters but families & webs of networks that feel familial and allow us into their childhoods, worries, successes, relationships
• setting written wow even though it is bouncing around places