Topic: Memoir

I still love Kierkegaard

He is the dramatic thunderstorm at the heart of philosophy and his provocation is more valuable than ever

My mom

I love her and it’s a secret. I love her so much it kills me, and you bet I’d sooner die than tell her

Stories in the night

Insomnia brings many gifts — the noises of the night, the twist of narrative, and a stolen march on time

Zen freedom

Free will and fate are both illusions. The trick is learning to sail with the prevailing winds of life

City of Kismet

Dear daughter, born two years after the Arab Spring, what stories can I tell you about the Cairo of your birth?

A flowered planet

For all their intricate symbolic force, from the Paleolithic to today's herbalism, plants are still a deep mystery to us

Losing my voice

When I left Nigeria for Belgium, I made my husband’s home my own. But homesickness lodged like a stone inside

Mortal remains

The dead are no longer welcome at their own funerals. So how can the living send them on their way?

Me, myself and I

Loneliness can be a shameful hunger, a shell, a dangerous landscape of shadowy figures. But it is also a gift