Falcons on the Floor features the flight of young Salim Abid from his home in Fallujah, Iraq, just as the American-led forces lay siege to the city. Intent on contacting Rana, a girl he s only met online, he sets off walking to Ramadi, a town 40 miles up the Euphrates River. Along the way, Salim is joined by his reckless friend Khalil. Their journey is hindered by the war and the roles the two young men play in it. When they finally arrive in Ramadi, things are not as they had hoped, and in the gripping last pages, their fates are sealed tragically.
Falcons on the Floor
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Falcons on the Floor is a solid first novel … an engrossing and compassionate read. --Bret McCabe, Baltimore City Paper
Falcons on the Floor is the rare novel about war that re-humanizes everyone involved. --Dahr Jamail, independent journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone
A lyrical and sensuous poem, an astonishing and mesmerizing book. --Alphonso Lingis, philosopher and author of The First Person Singular and Body Transformations
Falcons on the Floor is the rare novel about war that re-humanizes everyone involved. --Dahr Jamail, independent journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone
A lyrical and sensuous poem, an astonishing and mesmerizing book. --Alphonso Lingis, philosopher and author of The First Person Singular and Body Transformations
About the Author
Justin Sirois lives in Baltimore, Maryland. His books of poetry include Silver Standard (NewLights Press) and Secondary Sound (BlazeVOX). He published deleted scenes from Falcons on the Floor as MLKNG SCKLS (Publishing Genius) in 2009. His novel DMBSTRCK is slated for release from Dark Sky Books in 2013.
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More About the Author
Justin Sirois is a writer living in Baltimore, Maryland. His most recent books include So Say the Waiters, MLKNG SCKLS, Falcons on the Floor, and The Last Book of Baghdad (forthcoming) written with Iraqi refugee Haneen Alshujairy as well as The Heads (forthcoming from Newlights Press). Justin has received several individual Maryland State Art Council grants and a Baker "b" grant in 2011.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Mel Bosworth
Format:Paperback
In his powerful and methodical novel, Sirois guides the reader on a three-day trek from Fallujah to Ramadi as two young Iraqis attempt to elude the violence that has become entrenched in their lives. Spurred by his desire to slip away from his contract work as a designer of propaganda for the Fedayeen--and to contact a woman he only knows via the internet--Salim prepares to set out on what he believes will be a solo journey until his longtime friend Khalil insists on accompanying him. Khalil has also done contract work for the Fedayeen, though mostly grunt work, and he is an accidental celebrity of sorts--he appears in a widely circulated photograph showing two brutally massacred men. Their journey takes them alongside the Euphrates River past ravaged vehicles and ravaged lives with Sirois zooming in and out of the minds of his characters as he deftly moves between first and third person narration. Throughout, Sirois strings a web of grand tension as the reader is constantly reminded, despite and even within the levity between the characters, that death is imminent. In the distance, motionless shapes become men with weapons. The water of the snaking Euphrates River while refreshing to one man grows poisonous to the other. Within the grand tension of the war that Sirois has wonderfully captured, there are great moments of tension built on smaller more personal scales for the characters. Alas, this tension too often dissipates because it's never exploited, and a towering obstacle like crossing the Euphrates in an aged rowboat, for example, is too easily overcome. However, it's a small gripe for this meticulously crafted tale, and in the final third of the novel Sirois quickens the pace, the danger, and so too the pulse of the reader. At times a buddy story with welcome flecks of humor, and at other times a beautiful and harsh meditation on war torn lives and landscapes, Falcons on the Floor is, in the end, an important and accessible tale of humanity struggling to maintain itself amid swirling chaos.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Tyler
Format:Paperback
There's a kind leisurely gravity to Sirois's writing that is very hard to come by. The novel's plot is fantastic, following the journey of two Iraqi refugees in search of the internet, but where Sirois really shines is his treatment of the mundane. He manages to take little things... toilet paper, bottle caps, battery usage... and craft a complex and compelling friendship that you hardly believe exists before it grabs hold of you and refuses to let go. Seldom have I felt so invested in a novel's characters, or realized that a title is quite so apt. Falcons on the Floor is a beautiful and convicting read, and has changed the way I'll think about global conflicts. Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By John Beck
Format:Paperback
Sirois' willingness to change forms was a key to winning me over. After a prolog set in America, the first section of the novel hovers in a limited omniscience following Salim and Khalil. The second section is where the novel takes off, when we move from the more traditional narration to an epistolary style seen through the computer diary entries written by Salim during the journey.
It should come as no surprise that when two characters take off to escape the Iraq War, the war is going to find them. This novel is Chekov's gun on steroids. What Sirois pulls off in Falcons on the Floor's third act is an ending unlike any war novel I've read since The Things They Carried. I don't offer that praise lightly.
No spoilers here, except to say that once the bullets start flying the ending is not what you expect.
My full review is here: [...]
It should come as no surprise that when two characters take off to escape the Iraq War, the war is going to find them. This novel is Chekov's gun on steroids. What Sirois pulls off in Falcons on the Floor's third act is an ending unlike any war novel I've read since The Things They Carried. I don't offer that praise lightly.
No spoilers here, except to say that once the bullets start flying the ending is not what you expect.
My full review is here: [...]
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read This Book, NOW!
Five hours were all it took to unzip me completely, just as five rounds had unzipped one man's shoulder and chest in the end . . . Read more
Published 5 months ago by CarlaJeanV
5.0 out of 5 stars
Similies Make Fallujah Visceral
I avoided reading it for a couple of months, because I was afraid of hard-to-remember names and unrecognizable settings. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Linda C. Franklin
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like Albert Camus and Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
This book, by genre, could be Young Adult because the protagonists, both American and Iraqi, are all in their early 20s, and the narrators are those protagonists. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Ayman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eloquent and Intense
For most of us, war triggers images of decimated buildings, flag-draped coffins, slow-motion replays of planes piercing buildings, grainy pictures of mutilated bodies. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Tai Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars
You should buy Falcons on the Floor and read it twice!
Just finished reading Justin Sirois's Falcons on the Floor. It was thrilling and sad and made war feel like a real (and strange) event - as opposed to the familiar one that too... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Timmy Reed
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Novel
I fell in love with the characters in this novel. This is not your typical war story. Sirois gives the reader a side of Iraq that is not shown on the evening news-the civilians... Read more
Published 13 months ago by chills45
5.0 out of 5 stars
Felt like I was there
Falcons on the Floor is a wonderful read! Justin Sirois vividly brings to life the two main characters Khalil and Salim. I felt like I was on the journey with them. Read more
Published 14 months ago by SteveO
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful & Poetic
This is a beautifully poetic book about friendship in war. Two friends, fleeing the on-coming siege of Fallujah, track 60km across blazing sands along the Euphrates river to a... Read more
Published 14 months ago by A. Jarrell Hayes
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Important Book
Falcons follows the trail of two Fallujan refugees, Kahlil and Salim, who flee the city before the Coalition forces first lay siege on the city. Read more
Published 14 months ago by C. E. Newgent
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing!
It is amazing how a book can be so deep and impacting. I hope everyone will get a chance to pick up this number. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Steve M.
