Review 'The Map of Salt and Stars' by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

"Stories are powerful," he said, "but gather too many of the words of others in your heart, and they will drown out your own."

"People don't get lost on the outside. They get lost on the inside. Why are there no maps for that?"

"I lurch and trip and realize I've been leaking bits of me all this time. The ghost of me is still scattered across the road from Amma, to Aqaba. Shreds of me wander the streets of Homs under the shop awnings. I have no voice, no anchor. How can I keep from ripping apart on the wind like dandelion seeds? How can I keep from floating away without [him] and his stones to weigh me down?"

"No one can take our freedom from us. No one can take our land and our names from our hearts"

"If a language or a story or a map can be used to give people a voice or to take it away, only our own words can guide us home."

'The Map of Salt and Stars' by Zeyn Joukhadar is a beautiful yet heartbreaking story about Syrian refugees. It's a story that reached all the way into my heart, into the center of my soul, and will cling there forever.

This is a story I will never forget.

The book tells the story of two girls, living almost a thousand years apart, but going through a similar journey, following the same route. Rawiya, and Nour.

We follow the story of the 12-year-old Nour who, after the death of her father, has lost her father's voice and thus her own. Before her father's passing, he used to tell her the story about Rawiya, the twelfth-century girl who disguised herself as a boy to become the apprentice to a famous mapmaker. It's a story Nour truly knows by heart.

Through storytelling, Nour takes us along on her journey while holding our hand, to find her voice again. A journey no child, no person, should have to go through. We follow as Nour and her family flee across seven countries across the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety. In search of a new home. As they travel, Nour tells us the story of Rawiya the apprentice. Rawiya the warrior. Rawiya the hero. Two girls, centuries apart, walking the same route. Nour finds herself piece by piece in this story while also leaving pieces of herself in the places she passed through. She finds and looses and rises and falls. She hurts and scars but she never stops fighting. She never stops growing. Nour and Rawiya have a lot in common. Two brave girls, fighting with everything they got for the good of their family. For love. For freedom. For their voice to be heard.

Nour sees, hears, and smells the world in the most detailed and beautiful colors. I can only wish to see the world as beautifully through my senses as she does. Everywhere she takes us in this story, she describes the world in the most vivid ways, making it seem as if you're right there beside her, living through everything she does. It almost becomes magical. surreal. But somehow, no matter how beautifully the world is described, you never forget how real this actually is.

Every word is laced with both pain and hope simultaneously. This book oozes loss. The loss of their father and the stories he used to tell, the loss of their home and all the things inside that held memories, the loss of family, of safety. Of life. But hope is a lifeline, a beacon in the dark, stringing these words of pain to each other. It's a thread to hold on to and make sure you make it to the end. This book is like the darkest, most desperate night sky. But still, the stars are always there, shining down on you to make sure you find your way back home.

Never have I read a book more beautifully written.

Never have I read a story more raw and heartbreaking.

Never have I read something as soul-shaking as this.

This book is a true masterpiece. An eye-opener to the horrendous things the refugees face daily. This is a book everyone needs to read.