Burma evoked the lost Kenyan soldiers who served in the war. You never hear about them. There were a significant number of casualties, men who never came back home. But they're never commemorated.

Kenya is an immense land with a capacity for healing.

For Kenya: we have a chance to start again each time we meet one another. The ghosts do not need to define the future.

I think every morning we wake up offers a new beginning, a new way of stepping into the day. I think every conversation could be a new chance.

Novel-writing is a settling, lovely space. I call it self-indulgent - I feel mildly guilty about it.

Kenya is a mercurial character. I feel the country has a presence that can turn on its people in a very violent way.

One day, I was running to the river. Along the way there was the most exquisite butterfly, a tiny little thing, on the pavement. I kind of jumped over it. And then two days later I woke up in the middle of the night with a character running, jumping over butterflies on the streets of Nairobi. After that, I followed the story. The story wrote itself.