Her wanderings in Berlin began tentatively, her encounters awkward and forced. The isolation felt physical, three-dimensionally oppressive, but it fueled a manic movement.
-- The Visitor (Prologue)

Importance: The author introduces the Visitor in the prologue, focusing on her feelings of loneliness and uncertainty about her life and her reasons for being in Berlin. This loneliness causes the Visitor to seek out others, many of whom are also lonely and desperate to speak to someone about their past experiences. She begins by simply walking through Berlin and speaking to the people she encounters.

What did poetry solve, I thought bitterly, when Hitler was annihilating the Jews? Action was what the world needed--warriors, not the wrecking ball of words.
-- Sophie Echt (Tomb)

Importance: Sophie Echt was a Jewish literature student when World War II broke out, and her husband hid her in a sarcophagus so that she would not be discovered by the Nazis. Sophie recalls the first several nights...