Give us a magic trick, but not a miracle.

If we become numb to the suffering of others, even the Kims and Kanyes of the world who may seem beyond our sympathetic reach, we may also be numbing ourselves to the suffering of people in our own lives.

Sigrid Undset wrote the famous “Kristin Lavransdatter” trilogy and won the Nobel Prize. She also was a sometime contributor to America during the Second World War after the Nazi invasion of Norway had forced her into exile.

Sigrid Undset, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928, contributed numerous articles to America, including this 1942 essay on Catholic writers.

A small Jesuit school—Saint Peter’s University of Jersey City, N.J.—upset the mighty University of Kentucky in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament.

“The Lost Daughter” raises startling questions about the role of motherhood as it comes into conflict with a woman’s desire to achieve something beyond domestic responsibilities.