"It was a unifying song and one that she was not invited to join" (Chapter 1, pg. 9.)

"She looked from the bald head of the miri flower down to Peder's straw-colored hair and wanted something that she was afraid to speak" (Chapter 1, pg. 16.)

"For the past few years, all her childhood friends has begun to work in the quarry, and Miri had grown used to solitude in her house and on the hilltop with the goats" (Chapter 2, pg. 34.)

"Miri has hoped to draw out a laugh as ease the friction, but the girls stayed quiet at hunted prey" (Chapter 4, pg. 52.)

"Once, words had been invisible to Miri, as unknown and uninteresting as the movements of a spider inside a rock wall" (Chapter 5, pg. 62.)

"She closed her eyes and imagined she was singing her thoughts right down into the stone, singing of the rat and her desperate need that night...