A moving study of life in Somalia before the civil war, Maps is the story of Askar, found as a newborn beside his mother's dead body and raised by Misra, an outcast in the village because of her Ethiopian heritage. Years later, during the war with Ethiopia, Askar must choose between his country and the woman who raised him when Misra is accused of betraying their village to the enemy. Farah has eloquently woven dreams, memories, and folklore into modern tales of ordinary people trying to live their lives with dignity in the midst of famine, colonialism, and longstanding ethnic hatreds.