There are two lesser-known ways to make a city look more beautiful. Most people would just redecorate. A new building here, a new paint job there. I leave.

"Pfälzer Saumagen!" Janet screamed across the room at me. We were sitting in front of the fire in a small town near Stuttgart, drinking whiskey and avoiding New Year's Eve.

“Nikki, I’m really sorry, but we didn’t pick you because I liked you too much.” I was back in Frankfurt, and Chris had finally called to tell me his decision about the apartment. “I talked to my roommate and, well, I described...

I rang every bell outside the building, but no one named Tony answered a single one. The few people who did answer hung up on me as soon as they realized that I didn’t know them or have a package for them. As if running the...

I fell in love with the stairwell before I even saw the apartment. Old concrete walls chipped in places, as if the shrapnel had walked in the front door and gone upstairs. Something happened to you in that stairwell. A musty...