"Even before the catastrophe occurred, Anton used to think that Carefree meant a place where cares entered freely, not a place free from cares; just as someone could think priceless meant without cost, rather than beyond price." Prologue, p. 3

"It was January, nineteen forty-five. Almost all of Europe had been liberated and was once more rejoicing, eating, drinking, making love, and beginning to forget the War. But every day Haarlem looked more like one of those spent grey clinkers that they used to take out of the stove, when there had still been coal to burn."
First Episode, 1945, p. 9

"His mother and Peter were just in time to see them deposit the body in front of Carefree."
First Episode, 1945, p. 19

"He could tell by her voice that this was somehow fatal. What had happened to Peter?"
First Episode, 1945, p. 40

"All the rest is a postscript—the cloud...