[1] Her Palestinian-Lebanese Muslim father and Scottish Presbyterian mother met in England in the 1980s as an international student and working-class librarian respectively.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English and History from the University of York[4] and later pursued a PhD in Theology at St Antony's College, Oxford.
[5][6] In 2017, it was announced Fig Tree (a Penguin Books imprint) had won a three-way auction to publish Salam's debut novel Things Bright and Beautiful in April 2018.
[7] The novel, centred around a married missionary couple in the New Hebrides,[8] was inspired by her own experience living in Vanuatu for sixth months.
At the time, outside of writing, Salam worked for an NGO that provided refugee students with postgraduate scholarships.