The maps of confusion formation

Author's name: Buthaina Al Essa Publisher: Taqweem Publications for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2015 Literary classification: Novel Brief about the book: The maps of wandering are the story of the child Mishari who was lost by his family in Mecca during the Hajj season, and the painful journey of the family to search for him across the earth. The title of the novel may suggest that it reflects the Arab wandering in general amidst overwhelming events that make the mind go blank. But this impression quickly dissipates in front of a greater meaning that Buthaina presents when she puts the reader face-to-face with human wandering inside a distorted world where life becomes like a maze with no escape. "Maps of Wandering" tells about the pain of parents who suddenly lose their little child while performing the rites of Hajj and their journey to find him. The search for the child soon results in another journey, and another deeper search… for the meaning of existence, the concept of God, and our relationships with each other. What will happen to the family that set out to the holy land for Hajj and then lost everything? Painful truths, on the human, political, and social levels, unfold to the characters amid their search for the missing child. These truths extend geographically, from Kuwait, to the west and south of the Kingdom, ending in Sinai, Egypt. What is the true value of a human in this world? Is the journey of searching from strait to strait a journey from wandering to wandering? And in the end, the question remains: is there an arrival? Or is arrival just a new wandering? In her book "Maps of Wandering," Buthaina Al Essa allows her reader to experience a different journey, neither life nor death. Quotes from "Maps of Wandering": Time is not your ally; time is the enemy. It’s not up to you; your readiness does not change the truth. Whether you are prepared or not, the world will trample you with its hooves and crush you. Welcome to the hell of justice, in the only place that equalizes humans, in the world of crime. I heard from Saleha a lot about what was called "Sulaiman Operation." That happened in 1990, twenty years ago. She was three years old. More than ten thousand Ethiopian migrants left Addis Ababa heading to Tel Aviv, with promises of work, housing, and money—something better than drought, plague, and hunger. They came in thousands, as I heard, fleeing from distant villages around the lakes; farmers and cattle herders. It was said that they had the right to return. Return to where? To the place they never left in the first place, and never knew. Those who failed to prove their Jewishness were not included in the deal. They were left in their black hunger.