What impresses me most about the storytelling and the writing of God Help the Child is how carefully Ms. Morrison chooses when to reveal what needs to be revealed so we can begin to understand the inner motivation of the characters’ journeys.

After Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, I followed the news about him—this dissident public intellectual who had given the Chinese government a major headache. Having read many books about nonviolent thought and action, I sensed that Liu Xiaobo’s life and writing could deepen my understanding further: He believed that words followed by action could change the direction of a country.

This memoir shines a light on what’s possible, and hidden inside her story is a map showing a way to accomplish one’s dream—even the most unlikely and impossible dream.

Recently 1984 by George Orwell popped into my mind, perhaps because I needed to understand what I was witnessing in the first months of 2017, or at least make an attempt to understand.

Maria Savva's fiction expertly weaves moral ambiguities, deep-seated memories, and modern challenges into contemporary storytelling.

Reading is like exercise. You have to practice it. Call it the sit-down practice of exercising your mental and emotional acuity.