Extracts

My mom has three freckles, light brown and almost perfectly square, two on her right cheek and one on her nose.

I was sixteen when Sean Kenyon came into my life; he was twenty-two.

I like being the underdog because the only way is up.

All of this began in October 1978.

The moment I decided to leave him, the moment I thought, enough, we were thirty-five thousand feet above the ocean, hurtling forward but giving the illusion of stillness and tranquility.

The road curves and twists unexpectedly as it leads higher and deeper into the Catskill Mountains, as if the further you get from civilization, the more uncertain the path.

From the moment I accepted the invitation, I was nervous about returning to Germany.

When a baby is born, we say welcome.

On a night like this, I wait for the voice of god.

Maybe the machine could see the words she never spoke.

October 1955. If Albert Black sings to himself he can almost see himself back home in Belfast, the place where he came from.

The crackle of gunshots bounced between the mountainsides, the percussion fading with each return of echo.

When I was eleven, I formally resigned from the family dream.

Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.

Willa Drake and Sonya Bailey were selling candy bars door-to-door.

The magpies are back.

At first Claude said nothing.

Lost letters have only one hope for survival.

Being better than everyone else was exhausting work.

There’s no way to know the exact second your life changes forever.

The September days are shorter and cooler now.

‘Miss Armstrong? Miss Armstrong, can you hear me?’

It's gutting how much can change in just four weeks.

Once we have a father, but our father dies without us noticing.