Was he its ear and eye while assigned to aid her in the Human Rights investigation and report? In that case whom was she working for?"
-- Anil Tissera ("Sarath")

Importance: Here, in this passage, Anil thinks about her new partner, Sarath. Her questions about his allegiances and his interests reflect the paranoia and fear that are involved in working, even as a researcher, in unstable and bloodsoaked regimes such as that of Sri Lanka in the early 1990s. At the end of the novel, Anil learns that her fears about Sarath were unfounded, but in such a context, never unreasonable.

When I've been digging and I'm tired and don't want to do any more, I think how it could be me in the grave I'm working on. I wouldn't want someone to stop digging for me."
-- Anil Tissera ("Sarath")

Importance: In this quote, Anil relates to her ex-boyfriend Cullis the words and philosophy of one of the local...