It was not long before you tasted in Misra a motherliness which reabsorbed you, a motherliness in whose tight, warm embrace you felt joyous.
-- Narration (chapter 1)

Importance: This quotation helps to establish the strong connection that forms between Askar and Misra. Even though Misra is not Askar's birth mother, she raises him for the first eight years of his life and is a consistently attentive maternal figure.

He was a ruthless man, your uncle was, and you were understandably frightened of him. You remember him beating one of his wives or one of his children.
-- Narration (chapter 1)

Importance: This quotation establishes the basic dynamic between Askar and his uncle Qorrax. Askar dislikes Qorrax because of his brutish personality and his mistreatment of his family.

in a Mogadiscio of comforts...while my peers in the Ogaden...shed their blood in order to liberate it from Ethiopian hands.
-- Askar (chapter 1)

Importance: As a youth in Mogadiscio, Askar feels compelled to join...