Product Description
by Patricia Sarrafian Ward (Author)
"Passionate, lyrical, and deeply humane, this tale of two sisters caught in a war without end moves effortlessly through space and time . . . an astonishing first novel." --Andrea Barrett
Marianna watches her older sister Alaine collect the detritus of war from around Beirut--bullets, shrapnel, grenades, a gas mask. These objects, some taken from dead bodies, catalogue Alaine's retreat into a dangerous depression. As the family struggles to endure the daily violence of the Middle East conflict, it is Marianna who becomes her older sister's keeper, watching for any signal that might trigger one of Alaine's frequent, grim excavations. But once the family escapes to America, Alaine's newfound contentment is as alien to Marianna as her madness once was. As Marianna longs for her beloved, war-torn home, she struggles to understand that now she is the difficult sister. In lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Bullet Collection by Patricia Sarrafian Ward mines both the stunning, exotic landscape of Beirut and the pure, defiant landscape of a child's heart, and shows how war leaves its indelible scars on both.Author Biography
Patricia Sarrafian Ward was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, and came to the U.S. when she was eighteen. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the University of Michigan. The Bullet Collection received the GLCA New Writers Award, the Anahid Literary Award and the Hala Maksoud Award for Outstanding Emerging Writers. Ward is also an accomplished book artist, making small-scale books and dioramas that have been exhibited in a number of galleries and juried shows. She currently lives outside of Boston with her husband and son. Website: www.patriciasarrafianward.com
