"....we reached the country of the Lotus-eaters, a race that eat the flowery Lotus fruit....Now these natives had no intention of killing my comrades; what they did was to give them some Lotus to taste. Those who ate the honeyed fruit of the plant lost any wish to come back and bring us news. All they now wanted was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the Lotus, and to forget all thoughts of return..." (Homer, The Odyssey; Preface).

"The city teetered in a dream state." (Chapter 1, p. 1).

"They woke to the crumping sound of mortars on the edge of the city. She rose and was in motion, a prickling of adrenaline that she recognized when an operation was about to take place." (Chapter 1, p. 18).

"This was the way one lost one's homeland. The first things lost were the sights, then the smells...