You are a total stranger and you want to take my library book.

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.

For the first time, I had been struck by the excitement of the traveler who looks history in her subtle face.

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.

Then you must say to her, 'Madame, I observe that your heart is broken. Allow me to repair it for you.

It was strange, I reflected.. that even in the weirdest circumstances, the most troubling episodes of one's life, the greatest divides from home and familiarity, there were these moments of undeniable joy.

It was good to walk into a library again; it smelled like home.