February 1, 2024
Salama (Every Day the River Changes, 2021) grew up in suburban New York surrounded by diverse cultures and languages. His paternal grandparents had come to New York from Argentina, while his mother's family emigrated from Iraq. His parents' shared language was English, so that's what Salama grew up speaking. One Thanksgiving, he found his abuelo's writing on their family history, ""Historia Antigua,"" which chronicled their Jewish family's migrations--often forced--through Syria to Argentina. The author's great-grandfather had been a traveling salesman through the Andes Mountains, and rumors held that he may have fathered children along the trade routes. Inspired to better understand his heritage, Salama sets out to retrace his great-grandfather's route and find the "Lost Salamas." He intersperses the story of his journey with letters to his grandparents, his grandparents' writings, excerpts from Facebook posts attempting to connect to lost relatives in Argentina, and flashbacks to growing up in New York. A nonchronological personal narrative rather than a standard travel memoir, Stranger in the Desert is a reflection on family history, identity, and storytelling.
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