The Map of Salt and Stars -

Zeyn Joukhadar

Touchstone

2018

368 páginas

12h 16m

ISBN-10: 1501169033

This rich, moving, and lyrical debut novel is to Syria what The Kite Runner was to Afghanistan; the story of two girls living eight hundred years apart—a modern-day Syrian refugee seeking safety and a medieval adventurer apprenticed to a legendary mapmaker—places today’s headlines in the sweep of history, where the pain of exile and the triumph of courage echo again and again.

It is the summer of 2011, and Nour has just lost her father to cancer. Her mother, a cartographer who creates unusual, hand-painted maps, decides to move Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. But the country Nour’s mother once knew is changing, and it isn’t long before protests and shelling threaten their quiet Homs neighborhood. When a 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 as refugees across seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety. As their journey becomes more and more challenging, Nour’s idea of home becomes a dream she struggles to remember and a hope she cannot live without.

More than eight hundred years earlier, Rawiya, sixteen and a widow’s daughter, knows she must do something to help her impoverished mother. Restless and longing to see the world, she leaves home to seek her fortune. Disguising herself as a boy named Rami, she becomes an apprentice to al-Idrisi, who has been commissioned by King Roger II of Sicily to create a map of the world. In his employ, Rawiya embarks on an epic journey across the Middle East and the north of Africa where she encounters ferocious mythical beasts, epic battles, and real historical figures.

Resenhas (1)

5 (Perfeito)

"I wonder if there is somebody out there who loves the smuggler man, if anybody loves all the mean, unlovable people in the world. I wonder if bad men are good sometimes, when we aren't looking".
Será que as pessoas más neste mundo entendem, compreendem efetivamente o que significa amar e ser amado. O que significa o amor que se tem pela família e o sentimento de pertencer a alguém ou a algum lugar? O que move aqueles que com toda e qualquer ação criam distância, temor, ódio e violência para os outros? O que há dentro deles? Para onde leva o mapa interno destas pessoas?
"The Map of Salt and Stars" é uma história de coragem, perseverança e luta pelo direito de pertencer. Pelo direito de pertencer a uma família, a um lugar, de pertencer a si mesmo. Por encontrar o mapa para dentro de si mesmo e ousar imaginar um mundo em que a soberania das pessoas seja mais importante do que as linhas imaginárias que traçamos no mundo para gerar distâncias entre nós. Ousar imaginar que vivemos em um mundo de pessoas, e não de territórios. Que aquilo que nos faz quem somos, não deveria servir para nos separar, mas para nos aproximar. Que é possível sonhar com um mundo em que as semelhanças sejam capazes de amenizar as diferenças.