Blessings for all the years to come, Amira.
-- Muma (Part 1, Wheat paragraph 3)

Importance: When the novel begins, Amira is celebrating her twelfth birthday. Muma wishes Amira blessings for the future, and at first glance, this seems like a normal and gentle birthday wish. But here, the blessing serves to be ironic, for in the coming weeks, everything for Amira will change, and nothing will ever be the same. Indeed, what comes will hardly be considered by Amira to be a blessing at all.

Amira Bright –yaaaa! Girl child, rising!
-- Dando (Part 1, Dando’s Delight paragraph 12)

Importance: Dando delights in his daughter, Amira. He has long compared her to a sparrow rising above the wheat, taking flight. Amira is the sparrow, taking flight from her circumstances. This is a touching moment between father and daughter, illustrative of the deep and abiding devotion and encouragement Dando has for his daughter, and serves to be a harbinger of Amira’s future at Kalma, where she...