**This program is postponed. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will update the calendar when the program is rescheduled.

Join us for an evening with author Jordan Salama for a conversation about his new book Stranger in the Desert.

Registration is required.

About the book:

Inspired by family lore, a young writer embarks on an epic quest through the Argentine Andes in search of a heritage spanning hemispheres and centuries, from the Jewish Levant to turn-of-the-century trade routes in South America.

One Thanksgiving afternoon at his grandparents' house, Jordan Salama discovers a large binder stuffed with yellowing papers and old photographs of a five-hundred-year wandering history of his Arab-Jewish family, from Moorish Spain to Ottoman Syria to Argentina and beyond.

One story in particular captures his attention: that of his great-grandfather, a Syrian-born, Arabic-speaking Jewish immigrant to Argentina who in the 1920s worked as a traveling salesman in the Andes and may have left behind forgotten descendants along the way. Encouraged by his grandfather, Jordan goes in search of these "Lost Salamas," traveling more than a thousand miles up the spine of South America's greatest mountain range.

Combining travelog, history, memoir, and reportage, Stranger in the Desert transports readers from the lonely plains of Patagonia to the breathtaking altiplano of the high Andes; from the old Jewish quarter of Damascus to today's vibrant neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. It is also a fervent journey of self-discovery as Salama grapples with his own Jewish, Arab, and Latin American identities, interrogating the stories families tell themselves, and to what end.

About the author:

Jordan Salama is a writer covering culture and the environment in the Americas. He is the author of Every Day the River Changes, a journey down Colombia's Río Magdalena, which was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2021. His essays and stories have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Scientific American, NPR's All Things Considered and other publications. Most recently, his story, The Candy Seller, an investigation into the lives of migrant families selling candy on the New York City subway, was on the cover of New York magazine. He lives in New York.

Copies of the book are available for purchase through Book Ends in Winchester or available to borrow from the Minuteman Library Network.

This program is made possible by the generous donors to the Cary Library Foundation.