A riveting memoir about one woman's journey into Syria under the Baathist regime and an unexpected love story between two strangers searching for meaning. When Stephanie Saldaña arrives in Damascus, she is running away from a broken heart and a haunted family history that she has crossed the world to escape. Yet as she moves into a tumbling Ottoman house in the heart of the Old City, she is unprepared for the complex world that awaits her: an ancient capital where Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians, Alawites, Kurds, and Palestinian and Iraqi refugees share a fragile co-existence. Soon she is stumbling through the Arabic language, fielding interviews from the secret police, and struggling to make the city her own. But as the political climate darkens and the war in neighboring Iraq threatens to spill over, she flees to an ancient Christian monastery carved into the desert cliffs, where she is forced to confront the life she left behind. Soon she will meet a series of improbable teachers: an iconoclastic Italian priest, a famous female Muslim sheikh, a wounded Iraqi refugee, and Frédéric, a young French novice monk who becomes her best friend. What follows is a tender story of a woman falling in love: with God, with her own life, with a country on the brink of chaos, and with a man she knows she can never have. Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, The Bread of Angels celebrates the hope that appears even in war, the surprising places we can call home, and the possibility of true love.

The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith

Biographies & Memoirs

Saldaña, Stephanie

Community & Culture

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

In an age of distraction, this issue of Plough Quarterly looks at inwardness – how sustainable human community and social activism must be rooted in the spiritual life. How much of your day is spent in reality, and how much in a fake world? We’ve learned that screen time is bad for you, too much media consumption damages your heart, and Facebook can make you mentally ill. We’re aware of the mind-altering power of advertising, the dehumanizing passions of our polarized politics, and the fact that millions of us have learned to multitask while watching footage of refugees drowning. But what are we to do about it? If this fake world is invading our souls, it’s in our souls that we must find the cure. Only a return to inwardness can bring distracted moderns back to Jesus and to constructive work for his kingdom. Here activists may object: Isn’t it the height of selfishness to retreat into our interior life when we ought to be out saving starving children? Yet Christians through the ages have insisted that inwardness is crucial to the life of discipleship. It’s what keeps us from falling for demagogues and false gospels, from wasting life on superficialities, and from ignoring our neighbor. In fact, throughout history it has often been the mystics who were most active in serving others. In true Plough fashion, this issue brings together a colorful cast of examples: from medieval Beguines and Benedictines to Gerard Manley Hopkins, Simone Weil, and Fannie Lou Hamer, to contemporary voices like Robert Cardinal Sarah, Johann Christoph Arnold, and three persecuted Syrian priests. These lives offer us glimpses of the real world from which our fake world seeks to distract us, and can guide us in our own refusal to conform. Also in this issue: • Poetry from Gerard Manley Hopkins and Malcolm Guite • Insights on inwardness from Meister Eckhart, Eberhard Arnold, Marguerite Porete, Simone Weil, and Isaac Penington • A forum on the Benedict Option with Rod Dreher, Ross Douthat, Jacqueline C. Rivers, and Randall Gauger • Artwork by Jason Landsel, Bruce Herman, Jane Chapin, Graham Berry, Fra Angelico, Francisco de Zurbarán, Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, Matthew J. Cutter, John August Swanson, Vittorio Matteo Corcos, and Leon Dabo Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’ message into practice and find common cause with others.

Plough Quarterly No. 13 - Save Our Souls: Inwardness in a Distracted Age (Plough Quarterly, 13)

History

Gioia, Dana

Douthat, Ross

HOPKINS, Gerard Manley

WEIL, Simone

Eckhart, Meister

Dreher, Rod

Arnold, Eberhard

Penington, Isaac

Kuczynski, Pawel

Rivers, Jacqueline C.

World

Plough Publishing House

Your job is not your vocation. Everyone hungers for work that has meaning and purpose. But what gives work meaning? Vocation, or “calling,” is the answer Protestant Christianity offers: each person is called by God to serve the common good in a particular line of work. Your vocation, evidently, might be almost anything: as a nurse, a wilderness guide, a calligrapher, a missionary, an activist, a venture capitalist, a politician, an executioner… Yet, as Will Willimon writes in this issue, the New Testament knows only one form of vocation: discipleship. And discipleship is far more likely to mean leaving father and mother, houses and land, than it is to mean embracing one’s identity as a fisherman or tax collector. This issue of Plough focuses on people who lived their lives with that sense of vocation. Such a life demands self-sacrifice and a willingness to recognize one’s own supposed strengths as weaknesses, as it did for the Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier. It involves a lifelong commitment to a flesh-and-blood church, as Coptic Archbishop Angaelos describes. It may even require a readiness to give up one’s life, as it did for Annalena Tonelli, an Italian humanitarian who pioneered the treatment of tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa. But as these stories also testify, it brings a gladness deeper than any self-chosen path. Also in this issue: - Scott Beauchamp on mercenaries - Nathan Schneider on cryptocurrencies - Stephanie Saldaña on Syrian refugee art - Peter Biles on loneliness at college - Phil Christman on Bible translation - Michael Brendan Dougherty on fatherhood - Insights on vocation from C. S. Lewis, Thérèse of Lisieux, Mother Teresa, Eberhard Arnold, Dorothy Sayers, Jean Vanier, and Gerard Manley Hopkins - poetry by Devon Balwit and Carl Sandburg - reviews of books by Robert Alter, Edwidge Danticat, Matthew D. Hockenos, Amy Waldman, and Jeremy Courtney - art and photography by Pola Rader, Dean Mitchell, Mark Freear, Timothy Jones, Paweł Filipczak, Mary Pal, Harley Manifold, Sami Lalu Jahola, Marc Chagall, and Russell Bain. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’ message into practice and find common cause with others.

Plough Quarterly No. 22 - Vocation: Why We Work (Plough Quarterly, 22)

Business & Money

Willimon, Will

Rowe, Mike

Schneider, Nathan

Christman, Phil

Jones, Rachel Pieh

Beauchamp, Scott

Constant, Anne-Sophie

Dougherty, Michael Brendan

Peters, Julian

Angaelos

Job Hunting & Careers

No matter who wins the next election, Caesar will remain Caesar, doing some good and some bad. But Christians report to a different king. This issue starts with a provocation. In his opening letter, editor Peter Mommsen suggests Christians are too excited about the wrong politics: "Questions of public justice should matter deeply to Christians. We dare not be indifferent about securing healthcare for all and ending interventionist wars; we must seek to reduce abortions and strengthen families. When an election comes, we should pray and then, perhaps, lend our support to a candidate we judge may, on balance, advance social righteousness. But if the early Christians and the Anabaptists are right, this isn't the politics that matters most. And so, as a matter of faithfulness, we should question how much it deserves of our passion and time. Our allegiance belongs elsewhere." In contrast to an election campaign, this politics may feel grittier and less glamorous. This issue of Plough Quarterly explores what this alternate vision of faithful Christian witness in the political sphere might look like. You'll find articles on: <ul> <li>What two leading political theorists of left and right agree on</li> <li>What persecution taught Anabaptists about politics</li> <li>The Bruderhof's interactions with the state</li> <li>Tolstoy's case against making war more humane</li> <li>How some Christians read Romans 13 under fascism</li> </ul>

Plough Quarterly No. 24 – Faith and Politics (Plough Quarterly, 24)

Religion & Spirituality

Hamid, Shadi

Heschel, Abraham Joshua

Moyn, Samuel

Roth, John D.

Thomas, Sally

West, Cornel

Mayfield, D.L.

Geroge, Robert P.

Huleatt, John

Ohden, Mesissa

Christian Books & Bibles

An beautiful and inspiring memoir that shows how love can enter the cracks of our lives and leave us feeling whole.In this gripping and gorgeously lyrical memoir of marriage and motherhood, Stephanie, an American girl from Texas, and Frederic, a former French monk, set out to find a home and discover themselvesand one anotherin the most unlikely of places: Nablus Road, where the fractious sides of Palestinian and Israeli Jerusalem crash together (literally). As violence erupts in the city, Frederic embarks on a religious and spiritual journey that forces the family to redefine their lives, their love and the meaning of what they call home.

A Country Between: An American Woman, a French Monk, and a Home at the Edge of Two Worlds

Sourcebooks

"A Country Between reminds us that grief is as indispensable to joy as light is to shadow. Beautifully written, ardent and wise." ―Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Secret Chord, People of the Book, and March
Moving her family to a war zone was not a simple choice, but she's determined to find hope, love, and peace amid the conflict in the Middle East.
 When young mother Stephanie Saldana finds herself in an empty house at the beginning of Nablus road―the dividing line between East and West Jerusalem―she sees more than a Middle Eastern flash point. She sees what could be home. 
 Before her eyes, the fragile community of Jerusalem opens, and she starts to build her family to outlast the chaos. But as her son grows, so do the military checkpoints and bomb sirens, and Stephanie must learn to bridge the gap between safety and home, always questioning her choice to start her family and raise her child in a country at war.
A Country Between is a celebration of faith, language, and family―and a mother's discovery of how love can fill the spaces between what was once shattered, leaving us whole once more.

A Country Between: Making a Home Where Both Sides of Jerusalem Collide

Eggplant seeds, a lullaby in a vanishing language, an embroidered dress. When people flee their homes, the things they save speak of beauty and suffering and the indomitable human spirit. In an era of mass migration in which more than 100 million people are displaced comes this lyrical portrait of Syrian and Iraqi refugees and the belongings they carry. What We Remember Will Be Savedis a book of hope, home, and the stories we hold within us when everything else has been lost. Journalist and scholar Stephanie Saldaña, who lived in Syria before the war, sets out on a journey across nine countries to meet refugees and learn what they salvaged from the ruins when they escaped. Now, in the narratives of six extraordinary women and men, from Mt. Sinjar to Aleppo to Lesvos to Amsterdam, we discover that the little things matter a great deal. Saldaña introduces us to a woman who saved her city in a dress, a musician who saved his stories in songs, and a couple who rebuilt their destroyed pharmacy even as the city around them fell apart. Together they provide a window into a religiously diverse corner of the Middle East on the edge of unraveling, and the people keeping it alive with their stories. Born of years of friendship and reporting, What We Remember Will Be Savedis a breathtaking, elegiac odyssey into the heart of the largest refugee crisis in modern history. It reminds us that refugees are storytellers and speakers of vanishing languages, and of how much history can be distilled into a piece of fabric, or eggplant seeds. What we salvage tells our story. What we remember will be saved.

What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees and the Things They Carry

Broadleaf Books

When American writer Stephanie Saldaña finds herself in an empty house at the beginning of Nablus Road, the dividing line between East and West Jerusalem, she is a new wife trying to navigate a fragile terrain, both within her marriage and throughout the country in which she has chosen to live.Pregnant with her first child, Stephanie struggles to protect her family, their faith, and herself from the cracks of Middle Eastern conflict that threaten to shatter the world around her. But as her due date approaches, she must reconcile herself with her choice to bring a child into a dangerous world. Determined to piece together life from the brokenness, she sets out to uncover small instances of beauty to balance the delicate coexistence between love, motherhood, and a country so often at war.In an urban valley in Jerusalem, A Country Between captures the fragile ecosystem of the Middle East and the difficult first years of motherhood in the midst of a conflict-torn city. What unfolds is a celebration of faith, language, family, and love that fills the space between what was shattered, leaving us whole once more.

Tantor Media, Inc.

Tantor Audio

Canwe move beyond borders that divide us without losing our identity? &nbsp; Overthe past decade, theyearning for rootedness, for being part of a story bigger than oneself, hasflared up as a cultural force to be reckoned with. There's much to affirm in thisdesire to belong to a people. That means pride in all that is admirable in thenation to which we belong - and repentance for its historic sins. &nbsp; Afocus on national identity, ofcourse, can lead to darker places. The new nationalists, who in Westerncountries often appeal to the memory of a Christian past, applaud whengovernments fortify borders to keep out people who are fleeing for their lives.(Needless to say, such actions are contrary to the Christian faith.) Is ouryearning for roots doomed to lead to a heartless politics of exclusion? Doesmaintaining group or national identity require borders guarded with lethalviolence? &nbsp; Theanswer isn't artificial schemes for universal brotherhood, such as a universal language. Our differencesare what make a community human. Might the true ground for community lie deepereven than shared nationality or language? After all, the biblical vision ofhumankind's ultimate future has "every tribe and language and people andnation" coming together - beyond all borders but still as themselves. &nbsp; In this issue: - Santiago Ramosdescribes a double homelessness immigrant children experience as outsiders inboth countries. - Ashley Lucasprofiles a Black Panther imprisoned for life and looks at the impact on hisfamily. - Simeon Wiehlerhelps a museum repatriate a thousand human skulls collected by a colonialist. - Yaniv Sageecalls Zionism back to its founding vision of a shared society withPalestinians. - StephanieSaldaña finds the lost legendary chocolates of Damascus being crafted in Texas. - EdwidgeDanticat says storytelling builds a home that no physical separation can takeaway. - Phographer RiverClaure reimagines Saint-Exupéry's LePetit Prince as an Aymara fairy tale. - Ann Thomas tellsof liminal experiences while helping families choose a cemetery plot. - Russell Moorechallenges the church to reclaim its integrity and staunch an exodus. &nbsp; You'll also find: - Prize-winning poemsby Mhairi Owens, Susan de Sola, and Forester McClatchey - A profile of Japanesepeacemaker Toyohiko Kagawa - Reviews ofFredrik deBoer's The Cult of Smart,Anna Neima's The Utopians, and AmorTowles's The Lincoln Highway - Insights onfollowing Jesus from E. Stanley Jones, Barbara Brown Taylor, Teresa of Ávila,Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King Jr., Eberhard Arnold, Leonardo Boff, MeisterEckhart, C. S. Lewis, Hermas, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer &nbsp; Plough Quarterly features stories,ideas, and culturefor people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-deptharticles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus'message into practice and find common cause with others.

Plough Quarterly No. 29 – Beyond Borders

Danticat, Edwidge

Moore, Russell

Lucas, Ashley

Thomas, Ann

Claure, River

Ramos, Santiago

Wiehler, Simeon

Sagee, Yaniv

Americas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Saldaña, Stephanie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Saldaña, Stephanie