I was born without a voice, one cold, overcast day in Brooklyn, New York.
-- Unknown (N/A)

Importance: This is the opening sentence of the novel. There is no chapter title or description, and the speaker is unknown, though the reader learns at the end of the novel that it is Deya, one of the main female characters. This quote represents one of the main themes of the novel, that books and writing give women a voice, in a culture where their voice is otherwise oppressed, or completely forbidden. The unknown voice serves to speak for all women. This voice is only two pages, and opens the novel, which then goes back in time to the start of Isra and Adam’s meeting and marriage in Palestine.

Listen to me, daughter. No matter how far from Palestine you go, a woman will always be a woman. Location will not change her naseeb, her destiny...
-- Isra's Mother (N/A)