A Country Between

October 17, 2016
This candid, tenderly rendered love story begins in a Syrian monastery, where Saldaña (Bread of Angels), a Texas-born journalist, falls for Frédéric, a French novice monk. Saldaña writes about both her growing adoration and her concerns, first as the two make a leap into marriage and then when, only months later, they settle in Israel. Thanks to Frédéric’s church connections and the first of many incredible coincidences, as Saldaña writes, they find a home owned by French-speaking nuns on 2,000-year-old Nablus Road, on the Palestinian side of the city. The house is a microcosm unto itself, the first floor occupied by an Arab grocery store and Mexican nuns with a hidden garden. Saldaña nicely describes the people in her neighborhood, such as the falafel seller and town crier who reports on everyone’s comings and goings, as well as the shops with old Chanukah chocolates, Christmas decorations, and Israeli and Arab products side-by-side. In time, the couple’s bond with the people of Nablus Road solidifies; the Palestinian community embraces them, especially after they have a son. A year later, fighting between Israel and Hamas endangers the neighborhood. Saldaña describes in wonderful detail how, as their family expands, they stay in a place where so little makes sense, guided solely by their hope in the future.

Starred review from December 15, 2016
Reflections of a young American wife and mother trying to make a home in war-torn Jerusalem. A peripatetic writer whose first memoir, The Bread of Angels, chronicled her life in Damascus while learning Arabic, here Saldana (English/Al-Quds Bard Coll.) chronicles the latest leg of her life's journey: leaving the monastery in the Syrian desert she often visited to marry a French monk, Frederic. An American from Texas who grew up Catholic, the author was from a vastly different world than her deeply devout husband. Yet they were both avid travelers, and after getting married in his provincial hometown in France, they decided to settle, implausibly, in Jerusalem. Born under a lucky star, as his mother described him, Frederic found the couple a home in a huge old house next to a monastery on Nablus Road, just outside the gates of the Old City: the "scar" between the Palestinian and Israeli sides. Saldana's Arab neighbors--e.g., the falafel seller who claimed her front steps for business--were intrigued by her and her Christianity as well as by her ability to speak Arabic with them; she wondered if they thought she was a spy. Many of her neighbors were bossy yet well-meaning, and when she finally got pregnant with her first child, their devotion and kindness deeply moved her. However, there was the constant specter of war just outside the borders of the neighborhood, where the Israeli soldiers constantly harassed the Palestinians for their identification papers, and the tension remained high. With limpid, often shimmering prose, Saldana builds an impressive sense of genuine emotion, and she vividly explores the array of life in that seething section of Jerusalem. The couple's first child was born in a hospital in Bethlehem--among other ironies beautifully understated. A serene memoir in which the author takes valuable time to regard the character of the Palestinian people and their way of life.

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February 15, 2017

In this memoir, Saldana meets monk Frederic in a monastery in Syria, and they fall in love. This sounds like the story's happy ending (for more on this, read the author's Bread and Angels), but instead, this is where Saldana's narrative starts. She and Frederic, now a former monk, marry in France yet seek a place to live where they both feel at home. Both are deeply spiritual and profoundly religious, and they decide that the holy city of Jerusalem should be their first dwelling together. They rent a rambling house on Nablus Road from Franciscan nuns, on the Palestinian side of the city. Nablus Road is a colorful and vibrant place, and it is here that they raise their young children. However, on the edge of East and West Jerusalem, Saldana and her growing family watch as checkpoints spring up in front of their house, altering the neighborhood's way of life. Even though they ultimately move to a different house, they remain in Jerusalem, a testament to the couple's full embrace of peace and a commitment to living the lives they chose together. VERDICT This book about hope in uncertain times reads especially poignantly for anyone looking toward the future. Saldana writes about her Catholic faith in a waythat is inclusive of other traditions as well. (Memoir, 12/12/16; ow.ly/pfQw308cd7D)--RD

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2017
A story of an American writer and would-be nun meeting a French novice monk in Syria and falling in love is plenty dramatic, but that is merely the start of Saldana's memoir. The rest is centered on her and her husband's decision to settle down in the early days of their marriage on Nablus Road, in Jerusalem. The street is literally at the crossroads of history and geography along the divide between East and West Jerusalem, and this fascinating book captures the reality of living in colliding worlds. Saldana's chronicle entwines a personal journey of discovery and an up-close account of the constantly changing reality of the Middle Eastern world. As illuminating as her social insights are, it is Saldana's observations about the realities of marriage, motherhood, and aging that offer the sense of having had an uplifting conversation with a thoughtful soul. Rather than attempting to answer political questions about the region, Saldana shares a curious kind of hope by showing how life goes on no matter the circumstances. In this tale of a couple who seems to be called upon to never take the easy road, readers gain a deeper understanding of love and faith.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)