Jordan Salama, STRANGER IN THE DESERT: A Family Story
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.4 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zibby welcomes back Jordan Salama to discuss STRANGER IN THE DESERT, an incredible travel memoir of his epic quest through the Argentina Andes in search of a heritage that spans hemispheres, from the Jewish Levant to the old trade routes of South America. Salama reveals the discovery that inspired this book: a family history document hidden in his grandfather’s basement with 500 years of his Sephardic Jewish heritage and his ancestor’s journey across Argentina. He talks about his search for long-lost relatives and then discusses themes of identity, migration, and navigating multiple cultural identities.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books with Zivie. I'm the host, Zivie Owens. I am an author. My latest is blank, |
| 0:12.0 | pub date March 1st, a novel. I'm also a podcaster, obviously, a publisher, a bookstore owner, |
| 0:17.8 | and so much more. If you love books, you're in the right place. In fact, |
| 0:22.2 | we call it the Zivieverse, or really, the L.A. Times called it the Zibiverse, and we're going with it. |
| 0:27.1 | Go to Zivie Owens.com to learn more and follow me on Instagram at Zivie Owens. |
| 0:33.5 | Jordan Salama is the author of Stranger in the Desert, a family story. Jordan is a writer covering |
| 0:38.5 | culture and environment in the Americas. His essays and stories have appeared in National Geographic, |
| 0:43.3 | New York Magazine, The New York Times, and other publications. An American writer of |
| 0:47.3 | Argentine, Syrian, and Iraqi Jewish descent. He is the author of Every Day the River Changes, |
| 0:53.0 | Kirkus Review's Best Book of 2021, and the 22 |
| 0:56.1 | Princeton pre-read, and, which by the way, he was on my podcast for that, and now Stranger in |
| 1:01.1 | the Desert of Family Story. |
| 1:02.6 | He graduated from Princeton University in 2019 and has been based in recent years between New |
| 1:07.4 | York and Buenos Aires. |
| 1:08.7 | Welcome, Jordan. |
| 1:09.6 | Thanks for coming back on Mom's |
| 1:10.9 | Don't have time to read books. This time to discuss Stranger in the Desert of Family Story. |
| 1:16.1 | Congrats. Thank you so much for having me back. This is great. It's my pleasure. I love this |
| 1:21.1 | story, so personal, your exploration set off by the family and what was it called, his story, Antiqua, what was it |
| 1:29.6 | called, the book in the basement? |
| 1:31.4 | Yeah, the history, the history, you can tell I don't speak Spanish, that you found in |
| 1:37.7 | your grandfather's basement. Tell listeners about the book and about the journey that you |
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