Structure

A Map Is Only One Story is a softcover format of 20 non-fiction essays in 235 pages. There are no section divisions, but each essay moves into another as the authors recount a time when he or she wondered who they were or where they belong physically in the world. As expected with 20 different writers, the essays jump between space and time; for example, one essay recounts travel from Finland to Florida in her youth, and another ruminates how after twenty years she is still uncertain about applying for citizenship in her host country. The variety of migrations and the transitions between past and present helps create the theme of searching for belonging as well as the understanding that the struggle for survival transcends personal age and time.

The narratives switch swiftly through the mostly female writers. The main plotlines deal with the immigrant experience in a world where...