One woman reconciles with her father’s death on her family’s property.
memory
Forgetting the Madeleine
A pastry chef reflects on taste, memory, and literature’s most famous confection.
Children of ‘The Cloud’ and Major Tom: Growing Up in the ’80s Under the German Sky
“In the sky you could watch history happen as though on the world’s most massive TV, and history’s wreckage could rain down on you at the park with your friends.”
Smell, Memory
Perfumers evoke the elegance of an imagined tennis game, not the stench of a real one.
Spark Connection
Kirsten Tranter is cleaning out her closet. But her clothes don’t spark joy, they spark memory.
Why Fiction Haunts Us: Pulitzer Prize Winner Viet Thanh Nguyen on His Ghosts
Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen talks about how ghosts and authors of fiction share a similar role in today’s culture.
Wrestling With the Truth
A 1992 murder of a young boy unravels a journalist’s dark family secrets.
When Alzheimer’s Disease Relieves Us of the Pain in Our Past
For Maria Browning’s mother, Alzheimer’s Disease has dimmed old torments.
Doll in Shadow
Maria Browning reflects on the fact that while Alzheimer’s Disease has stolen her mother’s memory, it has also relieved her of the pain of her past — something that Browning is unable to forget.
His Heart, Her Hands
Steve Goodwin was a talented musician, but he had never recorded or written anything down. As his memory began to fade, his family found a professional pianist, Naomi LaViolette, to work with him to save the music in his head.
