A Stranger's Map

by Meryl McQueen

Sometimes, it takes a stranger to lead us home. In Sudan, nineteen-year-old Ayen returns home after gathering water with her child to find their village destroyed by soldiers. The overcrowded refugee camp is not much safer, but Ayen takes a job in the infirmary, using skills her father taught her. While protecting her toddler during an attack, Ayen is left unconscious and badly burned. Dreaming of her father, Ayen reaches out her hand. She is not alone. Across the world in Australia, Thomas McAllister wrestles with paralyzing guilt over his son’s suicide and his daughter Kathryn’s unresolved anger. To escape the disintegration of his family, Thomas travels to Africa to volunteer in a camp hospital, where he encounters a comatose victim of the most recent raid. As his eyes trace the raw cigarette burns on the young woman’s skin, Thomas thinks of Kathryn. The patient grips his fingers. More than two years pass before they meet again, reconnecting by chance in Sydney.Set in 2002 and spanning three continents, A Stranger’s Map is the emotional, optimistic story of love, loss, and redemption between a father and two on one hand, blood ties severed by family tragedy, and on the other, an unlikely surrogate bond that transcends devastating grief and a fight for survival.

433 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Yusuf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, haunting book about two families trying to come to terms with awful grief. The author does an amazing job describing Sudan--village life and refugee camps, as well as the wide open spaces of Africa. Both of the main characters--a young woman named Ayen and a middle-aged Australian named Thomas--have their own histories of loss and suffering, but they also shared incredible strength and optimism. It is a book for our times--reminding us of the horrors of war, without losing sight of the possibility for second chances. This book would make a different book group selection, with its combination of global/personal stories and ethical complexity.