Not the places of their childhood – an obvious choice – or places they’ve researched because those places are intellectually attractive. I’m often asked this question because the places I write about are considered exotic. I write about a city long after I’ve lived there and left it, having never had any intention to write about it at all. This seemed like bad taste until my sister argued that, to the contrary, it was exactly what my mother would have wanted. I didn’t know anyone in the city; the phone had gone silent as soon as I left New York.