Give sustenance, Allah. Give sustenance to me.

All my life, she gave to me a shovel and said, Fill these holes inside of me, Pari.

i want to give up my bearings, slip out of who i am, shed everything, the way a snake discards old skin.

A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn't have to live with this lie anymore. But no one woke up and in the silence that followed, I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it.

Sad stories make good books

I don't know the nuts and bolts of writing. I studied medicine. I was a pre-med nerd. So everything I learned, I know about writing is very instinctive.

I'm sorry," Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.