John Boyne

The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past. But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes? Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.

Water

Emma Hak-Kovacs

And let Maggie enjoy what time is left to her before she is forced to become…a what? There are widows, and widowers. And orphans. But there is no word to define a parent who loses a child. The language is missing a noun, perhaps because it is so unnatural.

“Did the island give you whatever you needed?” He asks me after a while.

And I think about this, because I want to give him an honest answer. “I think it did,” I tell him. “Now I just have to figure out how to use its gifts.”

“Because it’s small, and the world is big.”

He seems so excited to be on this boat. He is breathless for the life he is entering into, and I hope that he will not know pain, or betrayal, or disappointment. But of course he will. Because he’s alive, and that’s the price we pay.

Inês Lemos S.

“There's something about long walks, little social interaction and no Wi-Fi that does wonders for the soul.'”

“I feel a flood of love wash over me. I don't bother to tell her that I did the same thing at the same time. I will, some day. But not just yet. It is wonderful. It is right.”

“(…) I hope that he will not know pain or betrayal or disappointment, but of course he will, because he's alive and that's the price we pay.“

“When he smiles, his whole face lights up. He is the very sunshine.”

Water quotes

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