no reason to mention my peculiarities, my wandering in the maze these many years, shut away from sight. and from love, too.

A seven-year-old girl can take only so many walks with her grandfather.

All sixteen mentioned her jutting ribs, the insubstantiality of her thighs, and one, who went up to the roof with Lux during a warm winter rain, told us how the basins of her collarbones collected water.

Sourmelina's secret (as Aunt Zo put it): 'Lina was one of those women they named the island after.

No matter how long your've been at it, you always start from scratch.

He had the feeling that there was something physically behind his eyes, blocking the light.

We knew that Cecilia had killed herself because she was a misfit, because the beyond called to her, and we knew that her sisters, once abandoned, felt her calling from that place, too.