Dima Alzayat

"Dima Alzayat scrys the past, spinning narratives that are ahead of our time. War, politics and power come clashing together in these inventive stories that flit between styles and perspectives with dexterity. Alzayat may be the first person to realize that our history is our own black mirror." --Jacob Hoefer, Labyrinth Books (Princeton, NJ) The award-winning stories in Dima Alzayat's collection, Alligator and Other Stories, are luminous and tender, whether dealing with a woman preforming burial rites for her brother in "Ghusl," or the great-aunt struggling to explain cultural identity to her niece in "Once We Were Syrians." Alzayat's stories are rich and relatable, chronicling a sense of displacement through everyday scenarios. There is the intern in pre-#MeToo Hollywood of "Only Those Who Struggle Succeed," the New York City children on the lookout for a place to play on the heels of Etan Patz's kidnapping in "Disappearance," or the "dangerous" women of "The Daughters of Manāt" who struggle to assert their independence. The title story, "Alligator," is a masterpiece of historical reconstruction and intergenerational trauma, told in an epistolary format through social media posts, newspaper clippings, and testimonials, that starts with the true story of the lynching of a Syrian immigrant couple by law officers in small-town Florida. Placed in a wider context of U.S. racial violence, the extrajudicial deaths, and what happens to the couple's children and their children's children in the years after, challenges the demands of American assimilation and its limits. Alligator and Other Stories is haunting, spellbinding, and unforgettable, while marking Dima Alzayat's arrival as a tremendously gifted new talent.

Alligator

Shortlisted for the 2021 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection 2021 'Sardonic, monstrous, tender' Sunday Times 'Startling . . . profound' Daily Mail In Alligator and Other Stories, Dima Alzayat captures luminously how it feels to be ‘other’: as a Syrian, as an Arab, as an immigrant, as a woman. Each one of the nine stories collected here is a snapshot of those moments when unusual circumstances suddenly distinguish us from our neighbours, when our difference is thrown into relief. Here are ‘dangerous’ women transgressing, missing children in 1970s New York, a family who were once Syrian but have now lost their name, and a young woman about to discover the hollowness of the American dream. At its centre lies ‘Alligator’: a remarkable compilation of real and invented sources, which rescues from history the story of a Syrian American couple who were murdered at the hands of the state. Alzayat explores experiences that are startling and real, delivering an emotional punch that lingers long after reading.

Dima Alzayat

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