"Ruth remembered drowning.
"'That's impossible, Aunt Amanda said. 'It must have been a dream.'
"But Ruth maintained that she had drowned, insisted on it for years, even after she should have known better." Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 3.

"I'm not blaming them, a married couple needs a place to live, after all. Still, if they'd not built their house on my island, Mathilda would not have drowned. If you look at it one way, it's as simple as that." Part 1, Chapter 3, pg. 43.

"I did everything right. Everything. But it meant nothing. They got away from me. Their lungs full of fluid, they drowned in their bed, first my mother, then my father. I was helpless to hold them back." Part 1, Chapter 4, pg. 67.

"Her talking like that made him angry, but maybe she was right, about Ruth anyway. What did he know about raising a little girl? He worried about...