I would have liked to stay in our beautiful city, in our luxurious house, with its large tiled rooms, its patios full of plants, its living rooms with plush sofas, kitchens, cellars, workshops [...]

Servants, slaves, sharecroppers, day laborers lead a harsh life all in submission and destitution, as they depend on the will of their master. We women are not much better off, even though we [...]

The women arrived in a flutter of babble, rippling in their pink and yellow and sky blue clothes. They took their veils off, let their hair loose, and threw in the corners their slippers of silk [...]

I was always sick and she was always there by my side. I would wake up at night and see her. Her large eyes, shining in the dark, watched me. Every night. During the day too, she kept guard next [...]

The luxury of their boat, according to the maids whispering in the hall, was astounding. When I was in bed, irked by my day, I would imagine her and her husband on the deck, while the musicians [...]

I know you miss your father. In a few days, he will be back from the campaign and you can help me organize the party for his return. We will order a banquet, we’ll hire dancers and courtesans, [...]

My mother was born in another country on the northern side of the sea, over there. I wish I could have visited, but she never wanted to go back, she did not even like to be asked. She said she [...]

  Their thighs and shoulders showed under their torn garments, their skin burned by the sun. It didn’t worry them. Mama would say, don’t look. At eleven, you are not a child anymore. Come sit [...]

Yes, they were happy, why do you ask? My father spoiled my mother while you could hardly have called her a beauty, all yellow and skinny. My grandmother protected the best she could our [...]

   Grandmother was not kind to anyone except for me. She did not know one has to be nice, because she came from far away lands. I have her narrow eyes, her thick hair, which remained black until [...]