QUOTES
Quizlet Quotes: Click here.
KEY QUOTES
Activity: Look up the context of the quote and discuss why it is important.
- ‘Blöndal slowly rose to his full height. ‘I have no choice,’ he said, his voice suddenly low and dangerous.’ ‘Your father’s title comes with responsibility. I’m sure he would not question me.’ (p. 17)
- ‘I remain quiet. I am determined to close myself to the world, to tighten my heart and hold on to what has not yet been stolen from me. I cannot let myself slip away. I will hold what I am inside, and keep my hands tight around all the things I have seen and heard, and felt.’ (p. 29)
- ‘He had wanted to turn away, flee at the sight of her. Like a coward.’ (p. 49)
- ‘I shall make no secret of my displeasure to you. I don’t want you in my home. I don’t want you near my children...I have been forced to keep you here, and you...You are forced to be kept.’ (p. 61)
- ‘It will bring you good luck, Agnes. It is a magic stone. Put it under your tongue and you will be able to talk to the birds.’ (p. 71)
- ‘God has had His chance to free me, and for reasons known to Him alone, He has pinned me to misfortune, and although I have struggled, I am run through and through with disaster; I am knifed to the hilt with fate.’ (p. 84)
- ‘Perhaps it is a shame that I have vowed to keep my past locked up within me. At Hvammur, during the trial, they plucked at my words like birds.’ (p. 100)
- ‘It’s not fair. People claim to know you through the things you’ve done, and not by sitting down and listening to you speak for yourself. No matter how much you try to live a godly life, if you make a mistake in this valley, it’s never forgotten. No matter if you tried to do what was best. No matter if your innermost self whispers, “I am not as you say!”—how other people think of you determines who you are.’ (p. 108)
- ‘Memories shift like loose snow in a wind, or are a chorale of ghosts all talking over one another.’ (p. 111)
- ‘All my life people have thought I was too clever. Too clever by half, they’d say. And you know what, Reverend? That’s exactly why they don’t pity me. Because they think I’m too smart, too knowing to get caught up in this by accident. But Sigga is dumb and pretty and young...’ (p. 131)
- ‘You must apply the Lord’s word to her as a whip to a hard-mouthed horse. You will not get anywhere otherwise.’ (p. 170)
- ‘Has Steina ever had to decide whether to let a farmer under her skirts...or to deny him and find herself homeless in the snow and fog...’. (p. 178)
- ‘Agnes killed Natan because she was spurned. He saw the sentence written in his mind.’ (p. 189)
- ‘The weight of his fingers on mine, like a bird landing on a branch. It was the drop of the match. I did not see that we were surrounded by tinder until I felt it burst into flames.’ (p. 195)
- ‘Why not kill me here, now, on an unremarkable day? It is the waiting that cripples.’ (p. 203)
- ‘Come Agnes. You’ll catch your death.’ Margrét extends her hand. ‘I take it, and the feel of her skin is like paper. We go inside.’ (p. 207)
- ‘He would haul me out of the valley, out of the husk of my miserable, loveless life, and everything would be new. He would give me springtime.’ (p. 222)
- ‘I learnt later that he was as changeable as the ocean, and god help you if you saw his expression shift and darken.’ (p. 239)
- ‘The knife went in easily...like an ill-practised kiss—I couldn’t have stopped if I’d wanted to.’ (p. 302)
- ‘I won’t let go of you. God is all around us, Agnes. I won’t ever let go.’ (p. 328)