"Just after having lost her husband, Aunt Anna saw her nineteen-year-old son taken away. The men were lined up, and every tenth one was shot." p. 13

"You are lucky mother. If only I could be certain that someday my children would be standing on my grave." p. 22

"I was standing at my window, my forehead against the cold glass. It was late and I hadn't gone to bed. It seemed almost a luxury to die, to go to sleep and never wake up again." p. 32

"We tended some of the graves, specially those of soldiers and children. I had known so many, how old they had been, where they had come from, something of their lives. Escia and I spent many undisturbed hours amid beautiful flowers. The dead became our friends." p. 44

"He presented me with another book before he left. I found his picture between the pages...