October 12 was a good day for a killing.
-- Jakob Kuisl (Prologue paragraph 1)

Importance: This quote opens the novel and touches on the profession of the Kuisl family.

Just before he mercifully blacked out, Jakob Kuisl made a decision. Never would he follow in his father’s footsteps; never in his life would he become a hangman.
-- Jakob Kuisl (Prologue paragraph 61)

Importance: This quote illustrates Jakob Kuisl’s disgust at his father’s job, the job he is meant to do, and his desire to do anything else.

He had marched off to the Great War and only later felt the call to return to Schongau. When little Magdalena asked what he had done in the war and why he would rather cut people’s heads off than put on his armor and take up his shining sword and march off to foreign lands, her mother simply fell silent and put her finger to her lips.
-- Magdalena Kuisl (Chapter 1 paragraph 3)

Importance: This quote hints to some...