"Once more, the silence seemed to them so profound, so ominous, that they felt as though they could inhale it together…"

"Quietly, like a shadow, I watch this drama unfold scene by scene. I am the lucid one here, the dangerous one, and nob…"

"I am like a fruit fallen before ripening, rotting under the tree unnoticed. (p4)"

"By what miracle has this poor nation managed to stay so good, so welcoming, so joyful for so long, despite its povert…"

"cruelty is contagious (p8)"

"Unfortunately, I was too practiced in the art of deception, and behind my mask of detachment, I burned in silence lik…"

"She refuses to understand the march of history, its twists and reversals. (p15)"

"My cozy bourgeois upbringing is like a tattoo on my skin. (p18)"

"It did not escape me that for some time now I'd been faking piety. I had lost my faith when I saw the children's bodi…"

"Even though life has denied me everything, I am not inclined to play the adoptive mother. I may kiss Jane's son on hi…"