We must unpack what these earlier lives might mean for us, and for our future.
-- Bruno (Part 1)

Importance: Sadie Smith becomes engrossed in Bruno Lacombe's emails to Pascal Balmy and the Moulinards over the course of her assignment. Bruno's writings particularly provide insight into the interconnection between the past and the present. This moment foreshadows the ways in which Bruno's emails will guide Sadie throughout the novel and help her to move beyond her past in order to create a new future for herself.

Priest Valley, where no one lives but I say I am from.
-- Narrator (Part 2)

Importance: Sadie tells her marks that she is from Priest Valley. The area is in fact unpopulated and simply marked on a rural signpost in the California desert. The barrenness of the place provides insight into Sadie's social detachment and captures the ways in which her work as a secret agent has estranged her from society and human...