Hush Little Children

“The first was a girl, eleven years old.”

Forthcoming from Flexible Press, September 30, 2025

“For years, Hayan Charara has stunned us with his poetry—his genius with words, the images those words awoke both on the page and in our subconscious. Now, Charara astounds with his first novel, a mystery of sorts: Why are neighborhood children dying by suicide, even taking other children with them when they do? Well, here’s the deal: I will not solve the mystery for you but know this: the nameless narrator tells us his story in the bigger scheme of things, and for once, from somewhere other than the JudeoChristian, WesternEuropean perspective. And Charara’s fiction is poetic too, not so much in form, but in its almost photorealistic capture of the ‘American’ condition—like it or not. And at the end, a twist as deft as any Charara has created in his poems.”

ITO ROMO, author of The Border Is Burning

“A haunting and suspenseful story of tragic loss and blind faith. In this searing novel, Hayan Charara explores how a bizarre epidemic of child suicides affects a racially diverse suburb, forcing a pregnant couple to question their good fortune. Hush, Little Children is a wonderful debut.”

LAILA LALAMI, author of The Other Americans

…and some rejections

“I think that the concept at its heart could be too off-putting for some readers. I personally usually enjoy dark stories, but I think this was just a bit too dark for my taste.”

“The writing is beautiful and I kept going because of it, but ultimately the story itself became a problem for me—I like “dark,” but this is just too depressing and I worry how we could market it successfully.” 

“I thought it was an unusual and inventive premise, and Hayan has a really enveloping voice, but ultimately I found myself a little too personally troubled by it to want to spend a year+ thinking about this book.”

“Novels where bad things happen to children are a hard sell for me.”