The Forgotten Map

How can a spiritual journey of the past inform the quest for hope and meaning amid today’s challenges and struggles?

Gen Z, the teens and young adults born between 1997 and 2012, are a record-setting generation. The first cohort of “digital natives,” they master cutting edge technology with ease. Told to pursue what makes them happy, they freely explore a myriad of lifestyle options. And if they run into problems, they seek counseling without fear of being stigmatized. Yet, Gen Z suffers from depression, anxiety, and suicide at rates far higher than the already alarming levels suffered by generations before them. In The Forgotten Map, award-winning writer Paula Huston builds a bridge across the generational divide to offer questers of all ages a way toward hope and meaning.

Part trail guide, part cultural critique, and part spiritual autobiography, The Forgotten Map describes Huston’s own search for meaning and the profoundly rich and psychologically powerful monastic view of life that came to shape her journey. The book is divided into nine parts, each devoted to a classic phase of Huston’s personal pilgrimage and introduced by a note meant especially for Gen Z questers, perfect for use in an intergenerational conversation or reading group. In The Forgotten Map, Huston’s lively and honest storytelling invites readers to embark on an individual quest for self-knowledge and a transformative search for the lost wisdom of ancient Christianity.

National Endowment of the Arts Fellow Paula Huston is a longtime oblate of New Camaldoli Hermitage. She is the author of two novels and eight works of spiritual nonfiction, including The Hermits of Big Sur, and One Ordinary Sunday: A Meditation on the Mystery of the Mass, published by Liturgical Press. She lives with her husband Mike on four acres eighty miles south of Big Sur, where they grow olives, keep bees, and raise vegetables. Endlessly inspired by two devoted dogs and five fascinating grandchildren, she spends her days in the garden, the kitchen, and her writing studio. She is a contributor to Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press.