Quotes from Jessica Shattuck

This music had been played and heard before and would be again, not only here in this church, but in places all over the world, by people living in different circumstances and different times.

her dearest friends were like dreams she had woken from. How had she missed so much?

Benita held no reverence for anything old or historic. History was horrible, a long, sloppy tail of grief. It swished destructively behind the present, toppling everyone's own personal understanding of the past.

She will rue her lack of curiosity, her ability to see things only as she wanted to, for the rest of her life.

Only when we prove that international law and the human rights of all mankind are greater than any villain can we vanquish evil.

Our love has always been its own country.

He is against politics in general and longs for the restitution of the monarchy. They have seen nothing but rioting and inflation in the five years since Wilhelm II abdicated. And Ania knows not to mention the Communists. Her father has not recovered from the shock of their brief takeover of Bavaria, which, for a few weeks in 1919, became the Bavarian Soviet Republic. If he begins on the subject, no one will hear of anything else for days. For Doktor Fortzmann all was better under the kaiser.

Above Ania, the moon is nearly full and the stars are as bright as always. Cassiopeia, Orion, Arachne...The names of the constellations return to her in her father's voice. They are all in their places, a buffer against the chaos and indifference of the universe. It is what is down here below them in the mud that is all wrong.

He has the vision and energy to make Germany great.

Even after all these years, I am not tired of reading, thinking and writing about this time and the stories people told, and did not tell themselves. I still haven't explored all its corners. I don't know everything. These days, I feel its conflicts and parables running beside us with a particular urgency, crashing over contemporary questions of immigration, religion, and climate change, swirling around our political leaders, demanding: Look at me.

For so long Marianne and Albrecht and many of their friends had known Hitler was a lunatic, a leader whose lowbrow appeal to people's most selfish, self-pitying emotions and ignorance was an embarrassment for their country

You are not alone, she thought. Don't be afraid. You are beloved.

solace in their shared anger, grief, and guilt. Years later, as a professor, Martin would try to find the words to articulate the power of togetherness in a world where togetherness had been corrupted—and to explore the effect of the music

Her mind circled and darted like a bird whose nest has been destroyed.

The day of the countess's famous harvest party began with a driving rain that hammered down on all the ancient von Lingenfels castle's sore spots—springing leaks, dampening floors, and turning its yellow façade a slick, beetle-like black.

Standing at the grave, Marianne was suddenly aware of her own blindness; her dearest friends were like dreams she had woken from. How had she missed so much?

They had wrung their hands over his dangerous conflations, his fervor, and his lack of humanity. But Freddy Lederer's account was something new to Marianne. She lay in bed that night and knew Connie was right. Hitler must die.

They were too steeped in Hitler's rhetoric, too cowardly, too implicated in the horrors of his war to reject him.

Mary was a beautiful woman, with thick, honey-colored hair and a long, intelligent face. She was aging like an American, though: deep lines between her brows and along the sides of her mouth. Too much smiling. Too much emotion on parade. It was a young country. It mistook the theater of expression for honesty. If Mary had lived like a German, she would look ten years younger.

Benita set the letter down. Connie - her dear Connie, whom she had never even said good-bye to. Whom she had hated - really hated- for so long. But he had always been strong. He had lived his life on a plane of grand ideals and all-encompassing rights and wrongs. His view had been much longer than the trappings of his own life. And she had been the little mouse who could see no farther than her own nose, stumbling over roots and stones, oblivious to the oncoming storm.

the children had been elaborately and painfully put to bed (there was homework to help with, night-lights to leave on, snacks to bring upstairs, as if they were being prepared for a frightening and arduous journey rather than the luxury of sleep).

Take care of her. That is the most important thing." "Auf Wiedersehen." She leaned down to kiss Ania's cheek. "Mach's gut," Ania said, and caught her hand. Make it good -- an old expression her mother had used.

I'm not a very good [father], I'm afraid," Martin said. "Ach." Marianne waved this away. "I'm sure you are." Sitting here on this weather-beaten porch, with its brittle railings and the dull pounding of the sea below, he felt a gray bloom of failure. This was why he had come to see [her]. She was the gardener of this ugly flower. She knew just how to turn his face to the sun.

For so long Marianne and Albrecht and many of their friends had known Hitler was a lunatic, a leader whose lowbrow appeal to people's most selfish, self-pitying emotions and ignorance was an embarrassment for their country.