The Map of Salt and Stars

No cover — Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar: The Map of Salt and Stars (2018, Touchstone Books)

Published May 1, 2018 by Touchstone Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-9821-0076-6

(1 review)

"In the summer of 2011, just after Nour loses her father to cancer, 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 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 stray 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 …

"In the summer of 2011, just after Nour loses her father to cancer, 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 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 stray 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"--Amazon.com.

2 editions

Sam reviewed The map of salt and stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

beautiful writing (sometimes too beautiful)

4 stars

In the modern storyline, sometimes the dialogue seemed to go from one heartfelt, poetic and insightful conversation to another - which sometimes worked really well, but other times seemed a bit improbable for the young protagonist. I really liked switching between the two storylines, and as I'm not very familiar with the places where it takes place, I was also switching between the book and Wikipedia throughout :)

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