There was a map folded on the dashboard, but it was fading steadily under the barrage of light; Lilia was supposed to be the navigator but entire states were dissolving into pinkish sepia, the lines of highways fading to grey. The names of certain cities were indistinct now along the fold, and all the borders were vanishing.”
-- Narrator (chapter 2 paragraph 1)

Importance: This quote emphasizes the lack of control Lilia had over her life throughout the novel. An abducted child, Lilia was constantly moving but never truly free. The places she had been blended together despite her efforts to record the changes. Lilia felt a lack of control and choice in her life and desired the freedom she never had.

Lilia pressed her forehead against a windowpane in Eli’s apartment, looking out at an uncharted landscape of Brooklyn rooftops in the rain, and came to a somewhat unsettling conclusion; she’d been disappearing for...
-- Narrator (chapter 2 paragraph 1)