“My story has never been mine to tell,” says novelist, poet, and creative writing teacher Laila Halaby in her memoir, The Weight of Ghosts. “It is squished between other people’s tall tales, glopped onto their secrets and lies.” That may be the case, but the author’s story emerges as fearlessly authentic nonetheless. The Weight of Ghosts begins with the death of Halaby’s older son, Raad. In 2017, on a rainy February night, shortly after two o’clock in the morning, Raad was hit and killed by an 18-wheeler while standing by the side of a highway in Tucson, Arizona. He was 21 years old.