BOTM October 2024 The Map of Salt and Stars

[Celia]

Thi is a book about seven countries: When a shell destroys Nour’s home and neighborhood, she and her family and a close family friend of her father’s are forced to flee as refugees across seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety. Syria, Jordan, Libya and Morocco are four of those countries.

The Map of Salt and Stars is really two stories. One story is contemporary and the other is a mythological folk tale that takes place 800 years earlier. In the contemporary story, Nour’s mother, a Syrian-American, a cartographer and painter of beautiful maps, decides to move Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria after the death of Nour’s father. The mother feels a strong desire to live closer to her family. After they arrive in Syria, they experience effects of the civil war evidenced by protests and shelling in their quiet neighborhood.

I am not sure which country can be represented by this book. I had chosen Jordan, but it should probably be Syria because that is the starting point.

Comments about which country this book is in are appreciated.

[GailW]

I haven't read it yet but the description starts out "This imaginative but very real look into war-torn Syria is a must.” –Booklist (starred review) This rich, moving, and lyrical debut novel is to Syria what The Kite Runner was to Afghanistan..." Based on that I'm using Syria.

Ironically, I am in another non-Goodreads world challenge and they use it as the US because that is where the author is born. Can get confusing!

[GailW]

Anyone reading this have any thoughts they would like to share?

[Gail]

I really just started so it is too soon to say much but I am enjoying it so far.

[Gail]

I finished today. I appreciated the way the two stories, one a rather mythical one and the other a contemporary refugee horror story, mirrored each other. I think the author had some trouble with deciding if she was writing a YA story or an adult story and sometimes stumbled between the two. The two MC’s were both young women and warriors in their own ways. The ultimately hopeful ending was very blurred by the large number of losses along the way in the refugee story. Also, it is largely a Syrian story although they start in New York, pass through many countries and end in Spain.

[GailW]

Gail wrote: "I finished today. I appreciated the way the two stories, one a rather mythical one and the other a contemporary refugee horror story, mirrored each other. I think the author had some trouble with d..."

I have not been able to get into this. I'm pretty sure it's a case of "mood block". So thank you Gail for reading it!

[Celia]

I am still reading and am concentrating on the modern story. The flight of the refugees takes them through the following countries:

Syria; Jordan; Egypt; Libya; Algeria, Morocco; Ceuta, Spain

I find the book VERY GOOD and also plan to read another book by the author: The Thirty Names of Night

[Celia]

I did finish - here is my review

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...