“Hope and momentum propelled us through recessions and housing crises, through breakups, deaths, wars, and other losses.”

“She didn’t want to commiserate. She wanted me not to have seen, not to know what it is like to move through the world embodying that particular target.”

“That’s how oracle cards work, she told me, they guide you where you need to go. I don’t believe in anything, but I’d like to.”

“I’d never held a living cat before. It wriggled and scratched my arms while the paramedics did their work. “

“On Saturday nights, I am haunted by cumbrous memories of my mother.”

“Never trust a man who wears jewellery. It was her mother’s best advice, but she’d always wondered where one drew the line.”