The Map of Salt and Stars: A Novel

Zeyn Joukhadar

May 2018 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

This powerful and lyrical debut novel is to Syria what The Kite Runner was to Afghanistan; the story of two girls living eight hundred years apart—a modern-day Syrian refugee seeking safety and an adventurous mapmaker’s apprentice—“perfectly aligns with the cultural moment” (The Providence Journal) and “shows how interconnected two supposedly opposing worlds can be” (The New York Times Book Review).

This “beguiling” (Seattle Times) and stunning novel begins in the summer of 2011. Nour has just lost her father to cancer, and her mother moves Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. In order to keep her father’s spirit alive as she adjusts to her new home, Nour tells herself their favorite story—the tale of Rawiya, a twelfth-century girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to apprentice herself to a famous mapmaker.

But the Syria Nour’s parents knew is changing, and it isn’t long before the war reaches their quiet Homs neighborhood. When a shell destroys Nour’s house and almost takes her life, she and her family are forced to choose: stay and risk more violence or flee across seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety—along the very route Rawiya and her mapmaker took eight hundred years before in their quest to chart the world. As Nour’s family decides to take the risk, their journey becomes more and more dangerous, until they face a choice that could mean the family will be separated forever.

Following alternating timelines and a pair of unforgettable heroines coming of age in perilous times, The Map of Salt and Stars is the “magical and heart-wrenching” (Christian Science Monitor) story of one girl telling herself the legend of another and learning that, if you listen to your own voice, some things can never be lost.

Ratings and reviews

Nour, a twelve year old girl with a synesthesia that translates words and sounds into color is dealing with many changes. Her life is changing in ways unexpected, with her father’s death her mother, a cartographer who’s hand colored maps are things of unique beauty, decides that she’ll move Nour and her sisters back to Syria, to the city of Homs. Struggling with her own grief, and worried that she’ll somehow forget her father, she spends hours recounting tales of her favorite heroine, as told to her by her father Rawiya. These stories become something of a mantra to Nour, recounting her father’s sharing of the story, and the oddly prophetic (although not clearly detailed) connections that parallel Nour’s life and story with Rawiya’s, the part historic, partly fabled heroine that Nour so loves. The parallels are quick to reveal themselves in many ways: Rawiya’s story is from the twelfth century, when disguised as a boy she becomes an apprentice to the known cartographer Al-Idrisi, accompanying him on his journeys as he draws and experiences the world around them. Soon, we see that Nour’s journey and struggles are not dissimilar from those of Rawiya, even accounting for the often magical and mythical battles and struggles that Rawiya faces on her way to becoming both an adult and a rather fearsome person in her own right. Throughout the story, Nour’s struggles are given an extra helping of description and emotion that is enhanced and decorated with color – color that shades every interaction and moment allowing the reader to find their own relationship to Nour’s very unique perspective on words, stories and life. From horrible moments of rootlessness to the connectedness that is found in family relationships, to the never-ending search for a home, a way to be oneself while trying to make sense of the new society, rules, customs and places that bring an understanding of loss of home, discovering just what that word means, and just how much one loses in the constant upheaval that is determined not necessarily by where you land, but what those in power where you’ve landed decide you deserve or need, or even if your existence in a place is something that you can count on for tomorrow. Through all the issues that Nour and Rawiya encounter, it’s the beauty of the writing and the honest emotions that kept me engaged and wondering far past the issues on the page. Understanding, in some small way, the all-encompassing assault on one’s self-definition in the constant tumult that is a refugee’s life, the one constant was the need to keep moving forward and finding the strength, willingness and determination to make a place in the world where you can be. Just simply be, exist, grow and redefine your life in ways you determine. A lovely debut that was lyrical, encompassing and wholly present, one of many fictional accounts I’ve read of late that tries to tell the story of those who are refugees struggling to find a place in the world. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About the author

Zeyn Joukhadar is the author of The Map of Salt and Stars and The Thirty Names of Night. He is a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) and of American Mensa. Joukhadar’s writing has appeared in Salon, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. The Map of Salt and Stars was a 2018 Middle East Book Award winner in Youth Literature, a 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist in Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. He has received fellowships from the Montalvo Arts Center, the Arab American National Museum, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Camargo Foundation, and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.