My family lived in Egypt from 1993 to 1996.

Everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man. These stories run like secret rivers through all the other stories of his life – of my grandfather’s days in the army; his great love for my grandmother; the years he spent as a surgeon and a tyrant of the University. One, which I learned after his death, is the story of how my grandfather became a man; the other, which he told to me, is of how he became a child again.

My family lived in Egypt from 1993 to 1996.

My road to publishing actually came through a colleague who connected me to my agent, and the faculty at Cornell was very supportive.

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

At the end of the day, it's about the reader's attachment to and belief in the magical elements that make or break magical realism.

No matter how grave the secret, how imperative absolute silence, someone would always feel the urge to confess, and an unleashed secret is a terrible force.