Brooke Allen’s most recent book is Benazir Bhutto: Favored Daughter (New Harvest). Ms. Allen was born in 1956 and grew up in New York City. She received a BA from the University of Virginia and a PhD in English from Columbia University. She spent several years working in various jobs in the theater, and wrote a play, The Big Love. Ms. Allen worked as managing editor for the literary and art magazine Grand Street. Her writing appears regularly in The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The Hudson Review, and The New Leader; she has also written theater reviews for Time Out New York. Ms. Allen is married to Peter Aaron, an architectural photographer, and has twin daughters. She lives in New York City and Upstate New York. She has also lived in France and in Kenya.