There are a thousand ways to tell the story of a country. Ours begins with its people.

Of Fridays spent at our grandparents’ house, where the familiar voices of family fill every room, the smell of lunch welcomes us before we reach the table, and even the goodbyes turn into another conversation at the door.

Of the little things we never thought to remember, because we never imagined a time when we might miss them. Of the unexpected joy of hearing our dialect thousands of miles away and finding, for a moment, that home is not so far after all.

There is a Libya remembered, a Libya lived, and a Libya still waiting to be written. Every generation has known a different Libya, yet all have called it home.

For what is a homeland, if not the lives of those who came before us and the love we carry forward?

Letters to Libya is a collection of these stories, written out of love for the place we call home.

For the Libya our grandparents remember, the Libya we hold dear, and the Libya our children will one day call their own.

And still, there is so much left to tell.