Her invisible mark shifted, breathed its existence.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: While talking with Rae in the Winter Gardens, Sammar can feel her grief shifting inside her. In this passage, the narrator describes Sammar's grief as a physical shape, thus giving it nearly tangible dimensions. Though the narrator has yet to reveal the details of Sammar's loss and sorrow, in this moment, she reveals how deeply Sammar's husband's death has impacted her, and the ways her subsequent grief continues to define the way she sees and understands herself.

She had not been in a real home for a long time.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: During her visit to Rae's apartment with Yasmin, Sammar sits quietly observing her surroundings. She is surprised by Rae's space, as it feels like the most true form of home she has experienced in some time. In this moment, the author introduces her thematic interest in home and belonging, and Sammar's deep attachment to...