in those days, I fed my hopes of freedom in whichever way I could, without realizing that I was only hooking myself to different lures. (p88) - Laila Lalami

She did not notice the fading afternoon light that lengthened the shadows behind her, framing her body like the arches of a shrine.

He needed someone to trustworthy to deal with Faten, and he knew Raouf would not let him down.

(about The Other Americans) It’s a book that really questions how we remember one another on a personal level, but also on a public level. You can take an event, like the Iraq war – which figures in the book – and people even today are shaping it and remembering it and contextualizing it in very different ways depending on their views. So history itself is an argument, and we are still litigating it many different ways. (2019)