I've noticed Dracula was often as practical a fellow as he was a nasty one.

It's funny; in this era of e-mail and voice mail and all those things that even I did not grow up with, a plain old paper letter takes on amazing intimacy.

...History it seemed could be something entirely different a splash of blood whose agony didn't fade overnight or over centuries.

As you know, human history is full of evil deeds, and maybe we ought to think of them with tears, not fascination.

In the end, I always act from the heart, even if I also value reason and tradition. I wish I could explain why, but I don't know.

Natalie Bakopoulos has that rare gift, the ability to imagine a traumatic historical event in the form of individual lives and ordinary details. The Green Shore is compelling, personal, and full of quietly real moments.

Bulgarians eat tarator every single day in summer. They think of it as salad although we'd call it a soup. You can make it as thick or thin as you like depending on how much water you add. It's very practical in summer because yogurt cools the body faster than water, but the water hydrates you.