Books were seen as a waste of time. What was the point, unless you were reading for information? To lose oneself in a book was to be slightly wacky, a little greedy and ultimately slothful....

Hope had finally learned to live in the present. Often, when she found herself in a space of tremendous comfort, usually out in nature, or when her children were safe all around her and on...

Her mother had once told her that one could run away from home, from husband, from children, from trouble, but it was impossible to run away from oneself. “You always have to take yourself with...

The most difficult part of being a mother was to observe the mistakes of one’s children: the foolish loves, the desperate solitude and alienation, the lack of will, the gullibility, the joyous and naive leaps...