She knew that wishing friends were with her or allowing herself to shiver in the car like this were ways of postponing the moment when she would have to open the door and walk into the empty house.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph 69)

Importance: Nora Webster has come to her family’s vacation cottage in Cush. She is determined to sell it to be able to cut out an old part of her life which she does not want to remember. Yet even arriving at the house brings up memories from the past, of when her husband was still alive. Her facing of the empty house is reflective of her now facing life alone without her husband.

Nightmares never come back once you wake up from them.
-- Nora (Chapter 2 paragraph 131)

Importance: Here, Nora comforts Donal after he has a nightmare which causes him to wake up screaming. Nora’s gentle reminder that nightmares do not come back once someone has...