India, May 3 -- Dear Reader,

Writer and foreign correspondent Pallavi Aiyar opened up about grief and illness with the wit and honesty and the deeply personal journey behind her latest book Travels in the Other Place. She has spent decades immersing herself in the cultures of China, Japan, Indonesia, and Europe. On a Friday evening, Pallavi joined our book club to talk about tectonic shifts in China and Europe, the realities of parenting across continents, and the joy of a well-crafted sentence. Edited excerpts of our conversation:..

Pallavi, thank you for joining us from China. What's outside your window?

It's dark outside and from my window, I can see the lights of distant skyscrapers. I'm right in the heart of central Beijing, back ...