But it is important to know this, to know your roots. To know where you started as a person. If not, your own life seems unreal to you. Like a puzzle. Vous comprenez? Like you have missed the beginning of a story and now you are in the middle of it, trying to understand.

I read actual physical books and have thus far avoided the electronic lure.

she held her breath, and in her head, counted seconds. She pretended that for each second she didn’t breathe, God would grant her another day

Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.

Literary fiction is kept alive by women. Women read more fiction, period.

I wanted to write about Afghanistan before the Soviet war because that is largely a forgotten period in modern Afghan history.

For you, a thousand times over