The Wonder

“Better to drown in the surf than stand idly on the shore.”

Fate was faceless, life arbitrary, a tale told by an idiot.
Except at rare moments such as this one, when one glimpsed a way of wrestling it into a better shape.

It confused her, to feel such sympathy for a woman she loathed.

Everybody was a repository of secrets.

I believe emigration generally is that. The price of a new life.”

In childhood, Lib remembered, family seemed as necessary and inescapable as a ring of mountains.

For fear the Englishwoman might prove too skilled at brushing away the old cobwebs of superstition with the broom of logic?

Nothing could take that away from her; for the rest of her life, she’d have that kiss. It gave her courage.

Calm was crucial; a strident female voice caused men’s ears to close.