Stephanie Saldana is a journalist and religion scholar from San Antonio, Texas, who has spent most of the last twenty years living in the Middle East. Saldana studied religion at Harvard Divinity School and is the author of A Country Between and The Bread of Angels, hailed by Geraldine Brooks as "a remarkable, wise, and lovely book." Her work has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and America Magazine, and she has been featured on National Public Radio. Saldana and her family split their time between Bethlehem and France.
Description
"This outstanding book from essayist and author Stephanie Saldaña puts names and faces on several emigrants from Iraq and Syria, emphasizing their distinctiveness. . . . Readers wont soon forget the compelling stories of these brave individuals, revealed so poignantly by Saldañas beautiful writing." --Booklist, starred review
"Throughout this compassionate book, the author demonstrates the resilience of refugees, who carry with them their precious languages, cultures, and memories. Memorable personal stories that give much-needed depth and humanity to what are otherwise merely numbers." --Kirkus Reviews
"Saldañas narrative exudes empathy and offers hope, showing that a lost neighborhood can be salvaged in a song and that an entire city can be carried in a dress. Its a worthy testament to the resilience of refugees." --Publishers Weekly
"Stephanie Saldaña long ago proved herself a poetic and perceptive essayist. In this book, she also proves herself a courageous one. Following refugees into the darkest and most dangerous spaces of recent history, she documents journeys that are about much more than bare survival, at once wrenching and radiant." --Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
"This compassionate, fiercely humane collection of stories is exquisitely composed, an act of deepest grace. It is a compendium of precious preservation." --Naomi Shihab Nye, poet and the Poetry Foundations Young Peoples Poet Laureate of the United States, 2019-21
"An emotional and thought-provoking book that provides an insightful, moving, and nuanced portrayal of the refugee experience. I felt each and every word. I was there!" --Rubén Degollado, author of The Family Izquierdo
"Saldañas gorgeous new book reminds us of the breathtaking individuality of the men, women, and children seeking refuge around the world." --James Martin, SJ, bestselling author of Jesus: a Pilgrimage
"Beautiful, heartbreaking, and full of lush detail of creation and recreation. A profound journey of listening, of honest witness." --Sandy Tolan, author of the international bestseller The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East