My name is Eva, which means 'life,' according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory.

I can promise you that women working together - linked, informed and educated - can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.

Giving women education, work, the ability to control their own income, inherit and own property, benefits the society. If a woman is empowered, her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper, the village prospers, and eventually so does the whole country.

A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons.

far away from my country I would be like those trees they chop down at Christmastime, those poor rootless pines that last a little while and then die.

In terrible moments, in moments of revolution, of war or repression, of illness or death, people react with incredible strength.

A novel is like a window, open to an infinite landscape.