The kissed surprised him because it had been so long since he'd kissed anyone but Elspeth. It surprised Valentina because she had hardly ever kissed anyone that way - to her, kissing had always been more theoretical than physical. Afterwards she stood with her eyes closed, lips parted, face tilted. Robert thought, She's going to break my heart and I'm going to let her.

I think about my mother singing after lunch on a Summer afternoon, twirling in blue dress across the floor of her dressing room

But you make me happy. It's living up to being happy that's the difficult part.

I have a sort of Christmas-morning sense of the library as a big box full of beautiful books.

Every minute of his life since then has been marked by her absence, every action has lacked dimension because she is not there to measure against. And when I was young I didn't understand, but now, I know, how absence can be present, like a damaged nerve, like a dark bird.

She looks up at me, still rocking. “Henry . . . why did me decide to do this again?” “Supposedly when it’s over they hand you a baby and let you keep it.” “Oh yeah.” --Wednesday, September 5, 2001

Each spine was an encapsulated memory, each book represented hours, days of pleasure, of immersion into words.