"'I'm ten years old, my whole life you've called me Vanya. My name is on the school records, on government papers as Ivan Petrovich Smetski. Now you tell me I'm really Itzak Shlomo. What am I, a Jewish secret agent?'" (Chapter 1, p. 5).

"His parents and their friends never understood his need for athletics" (Chapter 2, p. 18).

"Mother was so eager for him to get out of New York - and away from Ruth - that the last week he had to keep asking for clothes each morning because she had already packed everything" (Chapter 2, p. 23).

"But Ivan didn't love her. He didn't even know her" (Chapter 4, p. 56).

"King Matfei sat, not on a throne, but on a large chair at the head of the banquet table and Ivan was shown to a seat at his right hand - the place of honor" (Chapter 5, p. 85).

"If only he could...