“A barrier in my memory has melted and two lives have run together, yet I still don’t know what tomorrow will bring. If tomorrow wanted, it could lift my living body off night’s and bring me to it, to the worn-out pages of the day to come.”

I wish I could remember how I came across this book. I think I saw a review for a different book by Iman Mersal, but this is the one my library had on Libby. However it came to be, I remember starting it and checking the genre after just a few pages. Mersal’s writing is so beautiful, clear, and lyrical that I couldn’t believe it was nonfiction. She completely grabbed and immersed me in each place, be that modern-day searching through graveyards or early 1900s Cairo. I may never find a translation of Enayat to read beyond the clips in this book, but I was moved by both authors here. So grateful to have come across these beautiful reflections.

“She wants to remain free and weightless, unburdened by personal archive or family tree or marble headstone. For a long time it was me who was walking towards her, but from here on out, it is Enayat who will decide to whom and where she walks.”