...and from then on whenever he smells lilacs he'll think about this moment. How the bees were circling above him, how purple the ink on the leaflets he's been distributing suddenly seemed, how he realized, all at once, just how beautiful a woman can be.

“My mother's blood that would last forever after. The blood of my brother, my gr…”

“Everything we knew condemned us, and our questioning condemned us most of all. …”

“People hide their truest nature. I understood that; I even applauded it. What s…”

“I heard a sigh, as though the books were breathing. I felt that this was where …”