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A review by jgnoelle
The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
4.0
Nour is a young girl grieving the recent death of her father as her family moves from New York, where Nour grew up, back to her parents' native Syria, where war is brewing. Part of her coping involves recounting her and her father's father tale about Rawiya, a 12th century girl who disguised herself as a boy to apprentice with a famous mapmaker on a journey to map the known world, which is told in an alternating timeline.
When Nour's family's house is hit by a stray shell, they are forced to leave Syria in a harrowing journey across try Middle East—along the same route as Rawiya 800 years ago. Although their circumstances are different—Rawiya in search of adventure, Nour in search of a safe haven from war—both girls are on a journey of self-discovery toward their true selves and the realization that with the proper map, some things can never be lost.
The Map of Salt and Stars is a poetic, heartbreaking account demonstrating the impact of the Syrian war on its many refugees, showing the increasingly dangerous and desperate measures and challenges of Nour's family to find a safe place to resettle. The story isn't fast-paced and full of tension and conflict as is typical in the western storytelling structure. Still, at every stage of Nour's journey their plight becomes increasingly worse, to the point of inspiring genuine fear for their ultimate outcome.
Even though I was very interested in Rawiya's journey across the medieval Middle East, encountering poets, kings, riches, wars, and mythical creatures, I didn't find the storytelling or characterization of Rawiya as fulsome as those of Nour. We are more so told Rawiya's story than shown it, which makes it hard to find strong emotional parallels between both girls. I also found that Nour's synesthesia didn't add much to the narrative, even though it was utilized frequently in her descriptions of the world around her, and also played a minor role in the plot.
Synesthesia is a condition where one of a person's senses is simultaneously perceived by others; in Nour's case, she perceived sounds, smells, and letters as shapes and sounds. It's one of those conditions that sounds interesting in concept but doesn’t translate well into text for those who can't actually experience it, especially since the colours and shapes Nour ascribed to things were fairly conventional, e.g. red and spiky for an angry voice, purple and rounded for a happy laugh.
Still, the story had many philosophical things to say about finding oneself and finding one's place within their land of ancestry, and does much to raise awareness and empathy toward Syrian refugees.
When Nour's family's house is hit by a stray shell, they are forced to leave Syria in a harrowing journey across try Middle East—along the same route as Rawiya 800 years ago. Although their circumstances are different—Rawiya in search of adventure, Nour in search of a safe haven from war—both girls are on a journey of self-discovery toward their true selves and the realization that with the proper map, some things can never be lost.
The Map of Salt and Stars is a poetic, heartbreaking account demonstrating the impact of the Syrian war on its many refugees, showing the increasingly dangerous and desperate measures and challenges of Nour's family to find a safe place to resettle. The story isn't fast-paced and full of tension and conflict as is typical in the western storytelling structure. Still, at every stage of Nour's journey their plight becomes increasingly worse, to the point of inspiring genuine fear for their ultimate outcome.
Even though I was very interested in Rawiya's journey across the medieval Middle East, encountering poets, kings, riches, wars, and mythical creatures, I didn't find the storytelling or characterization of Rawiya as fulsome as those of Nour. We are more so told Rawiya's story than shown it, which makes it hard to find strong emotional parallels between both girls. I also found that Nour's synesthesia didn't add much to the narrative, even though it was utilized frequently in her descriptions of the world around her, and also played a minor role in the plot.
Synesthesia is a condition where one of a person's senses is simultaneously perceived by others; in Nour's case, she perceived sounds, smells, and letters as shapes and sounds. It's one of those conditions that sounds interesting in concept but doesn’t translate well into text for those who can't actually experience it, especially since the colours and shapes Nour ascribed to things were fairly conventional, e.g. red and spiky for an angry voice, purple and rounded for a happy laugh.
Still, the story had many philosophical things to say about finding oneself and finding one's place within their land of ancestry, and does much to raise awareness and empathy toward Syrian refugees.