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I [read] The Book of Unknown Americans, which is by a friend of mine, Cristina Henriquez, and is about two Latino, immigrant families who live in Delaware. I'm interested in reading things from different perspectives.

Laila Lalami

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Laila Lalami
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: February 24
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
New Sallee
Book
Perspective
Perspectives
Different
Americans
Immigrant
Things
Interested
Latino
Friend
Immigrants
Reading
Unknown
Read
Families
Two
Mines
Live
Mine
Delaware

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A name is precious it carries inside it a language, a history, a set of traditions, a particular way of looking at the world. Losing it meant losing my ties to all those things too.
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There are writers I return to no matter what I'm working on, writers like the South African J.M. Coetzee. He has an ability to make you feel that he is writing for you alone.
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Historical novels, in particular, allow us to relive the past without the neatness of history, and with all the complexity of the present.
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I also read a lot of nonfiction. I just got Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. I felt like what with everything that is going on with the president [Donald trump] and the parallels with [Richard] Nixon's presidency, I needed to know more about the man.
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Thing that was very different for me is that an American child's reading is filled with Americans.
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The universe had an odd sense of fairness it took away things one did not want to give up, and then gave things one did not ask for.
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Few [books] get translated and the ones that do have trouble making it into the mainstream. It's more likely that Americans will discover another culture through an American writer rather read a writer from that culture.
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In some ways, I think it's the closest that we come to the truth — is in the form of fiction.
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I love James Baldwin essays, but also his novels. I recently read Another Country. I couldn't believe how ahead of his time he was.
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There is a insularity within American fiction even for adults. It's very tough for books in translation in the US.
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I began reading in French. I didn't read in English until high school.
Laila Lalami
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No one wrote better about the sin of pride, the corruption of power and the redemption of love. I will miss you, Gabriel García Márquez.
Laila Lalami