“During the pandemic my life shrank and faded. I ached for beauty, adventure, and connection, and so I longed for Anguilla…”

“We take a slow beach walk together beneath a gunmetal sky. . . I’m excited to share with her all that I’ve learned: how nature transforms trash; how turbulence and abrasion polish rough edges; how marks and blemishes distinguish what is real from what is man-made.”

“I thought of all my mother-in-law knows: How to feed a family of ten on barely any money. How to survive four decades of tyranny and a revolution. How to give a child enough wits and determination to overcome his meager beginnings and build a new life.”

“Certain subjects should not be discussed at dinner parties: Sex. Religion. Drones. If this last topic does arise in conversation, do not mention the innocent people they kill. But it’s hard not to when our Libyan relatives are struggling every day to survive the fallout of American foreign policy.”

“I'd spent countless hours studying my reflection in the mirror—admiring it, hating it, wondering what others thought of it—and it sometimes seemed to me that if I had applied the same relentless scrutiny to another subject I could have become enlightened, written a novel, or at least figured out how to grow vegetables.”

“What I had thought was a campaign unraveling was actually a campaign gaining momentum. What I had assumed Americans would never accept, they had embraced. What I had imagined happened only in foreign countries was happening in mine. What I had believed was enough compassion and concern on my part was nowhere near that.”