I grew up with some kind of storytelling instinct, and when I write, my default setting is to find a story and then to tell it. It's the only way I k….

I have a theory about marriage, Monsieur Boustouler. And it’s that nearly always you will know within two weeks if it’s going to work. It’s astonishi….

I returned to Kabul after a 27-year absence. I came away with some optimism but not as much as I had hoped for. The two major issues in Afghanistan a….

She would never leave her mark on Mammy's heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy's heart was like a pallid beach where Laila's footprints woul….

Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons..

Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly..

You have think tanks like the widely respected Atlantic Council that have published reports in the past year that have called Afghanistan a failing s….

sometimes the shifting of rocks is deep, deep below, and it's powerful and scary down there, but that all we feel on the surface is a slight tremor. ….

Kabul is... a thousand tragedies per square mile..

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

Panic. You open your mouth. Open it so wide your jaws creak. You order your lungs to draw air, NOW, you need air, need it NOW. But your airways ignor….

She wished she could visit Mariam's grave, to sit with her awhile, leave a flower or two. But she sees now that it doesn't matter. Mariam is never ve….

Inside Laila too a battle was being waged : guilt on one side, partnered with shame, and, on the other, the conviction that what she and Tariq had do….

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel..

A great deal remains to be done in Afghanistan and the jury is out as to whether the international community has the commitment and the patience to s….

It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the ….

Nothing happens in a vacuum in life: every action has a series of consequences, and sometimes it takes a long time to fully understand the consequenc….

J’aurais dû être plus gentille—I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you ar….

I found myself sitting at the computer, and I thought I was going to write a kind of simple nostalgic story about two boys and their love of kite fig….

I have very fond memories of my childhood in Afghanistan, largely because my memories, unlike those of the current generation of Afghans, are untaint….

And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poiso….