"A blond, blue-eyed child, about three years old - no one will know her exact age, ever - is sitting in the clay of a …"

"In her room she saw what she thought was the apparition of a knight dressed in silver, with a plumed helmet. The plum…"

"I pick up the New York Times sometime in 1992 and find your name. My heart catches. We are twenty years from a summer…"

"Neptune. Long Branch. Navesink. Sea Girt. Manasquan. Atlantic Highlands. Pinball. Boardwalks. Salt-water taffy. "Don'…"

"My grandmother's house. Small. In the middle of nowhere. The heart of the country, as she is the heart of the country…"

""Don't you think the sound of men's voices raised in harmony is a holy sound? You know, like the Beach Boys." I was l…"

"As children we had our seasons, apart from grown-up, growing seasons. Our own ways of dividing time, managing the ell…"

"As the leaves thinned the days shortened and the winter light cast everything cold. As the cold advanced quiet became…"

"The sound of a jumprope came around in her head, softly, steadily marking time. Steadily slapping ground packed hard …"

"The house almost slid off the land to the south of Carville, hanging on to a spit for dear life. Secluded, as she lik…"