See how my hands are pink and smooth after I bathe them in almond milk? When I was a child, they were always dirty and rough. Sometimes I burned myself with the cauldron. Not only was the work [...]

I hear women tell their daughters, I do not know why. War should not be told, the blood spilled in the gravel, in the grain. Sliced throats, flayed skin, spilled guts, rape, famine, even your [...]

    One morning my mother raised me from the bed where I was sleeping with my sisters. I approached slowly, afraid he’d wake up. A sob crawled up inside my throat, making me gag. His face was [...]

The hands of my mother were stained by the dye and all chapped, like mine, you see. She would look at them. She would say, my grandparents were rich. She said, the women in my family, curled, [...]

We arrived at my great-uncle’s in the morning. We had been on the run for a long time, fearing at every step that my father would be recognized by a former subordinate. The whole family welcomed [...]

– We lived in tents. There was none of the comfort we enjoy here: no beds, nor sofas, lamps, baths, heating. It was cold. We did not wash. We only ate meat. Sometimes grilled, sometimes [...]

Come closer, my dear child, that I might impart some of the experience I have garnered along the years, as wisdom, while my hair are not yet been tipped by white, has become my sweet companion. [...]

We often went to visit my godmother. Mother had my hair curled, she dressed me in chiffon, she made up my face with what she thought was sobriety. When we entered the beautiful house of our [...]

Whenever he came home, she quit whatever she was doing and ran to serve him. She threw herself down, took off his sandals, and wiped his feet. Then she poured him a glass of water, damped a cloth [...]

   An old woman raised me in a garret. We never visited anyone nor did anyone come to our house. Once or twice a year, a beautiful veiled woman climbed the narrow and dusty staircase. She sat on [...]