In principle I'm an atheist, although in fact I have a lot of faith

Those were the words she wanted to hear and she finally surrendered to the temptation of believing them.

One is never wholly conscious of the greed hidden in one's heart until one hears the sweet sound of silver.

Write," he said. "I'll write to you as soon as I get there," answered Julian. "No. Not to me. Write books. Not letters. Write them for me, for Penelope.

I couldn't help thinking that if I, by pure chance, had found a whole universe in a single unknown book, buried in that endless necropolis, tens of thousands more would remain unexplored, forgotten forever. I felt myself surrounded by millions of abandoned pages, by worlds and souls without an owner sinking in an ocean of darkness, while the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgot.

I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.

It’s a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.