The Map of Salt and Stars

In 2011, the peace of the Syrian city of Homs is disturbed by protests and shelling. A young girl, Nour, is forced to flee across the Levant and North Africa in search of safety.

800 years before, Rawiya, disguised as a boy and apprenticed to a famous map maker, set out on an epic quest to chart the globe, following the very same route.

In The Map of Salt & Stars, the tales of these two heroines coming of age in perilous times interweave, and shine a light on a country in turmoil, human resilience and the power of stories.

About the Author

Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar is a Syrian American author, and a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI). Originally from New York City, Jennifer was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother. After earning her PhD in the Pathobiology Graduate Program at Brown University, she worked as a biomedical research scientist before switching careers to pursue writing full time. Jennifer's short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Saturday Evening Post, Pank Magazine, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, The Normal School , and elsewhere.

Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. She has also previously published work under the name Jennifer Zeynab Maccani.