Kouun is ‘good luck’ in Japanese, and one year my family had none of it.
-- Narration (Summer) (Chapter 1)

Importance: This quote is the first sentence of the novel, and sets the stage for what at first glance will be a story about a family having nothing but bad luck. How Summer experiences the transformation of this bad luck into something more positive forms one of the work's primary themes.

The thing about luck is that it’s like a fever. You can take fever meds and lie in bed and drink chicken broth and sleep seventeen hours in a row, but basically your fever will break when it wants to break.
-- Narration (Summer) (Chapter 1)

Importance: This quote summarizes Summer’s initial view of luck as she begins to tell her story, a view that the reader can see transforming over the course of the book as Summer's luck changes less by chance than as a result of her...