"This was the time in her life that she fell upon books as the only door out of her cell. They became half her world." Chapter 1, The Villa, pg. 7

"That was how he felt safest. Revealing nothing. Whether they came at him with tenderness or subterfuge or knives." Chapter 2, In Near Ruins, pg. 27

"Moments before sleep are when she feels most alive, leaping across fragments of the day, bringing each moment into the bed with her like a child with schoolbooks and pencils."

Chapter 2, In Near Ruins, pg. 35

"But now there is hardly a world around them and they are forced back on themselves."

Chapter 2, In Near Ruins, pg. 40

"He had approached the villa on that night of the storm not out of curiosity about the music but because of a danger to the piano player. The retreating army often left pencil mines within musical instruments." Chapter 3, Sometime...