The day they found the body on the shore, Matthew Venn was already haunted by thoughts of death and dying.
-- The Narrator from Matthew Venn's Perspective (chapter 1)

Importance: This is the book's opening quote. It serves to introduce Matthew and the narrative. The reference to finding a body refers to Matthew's job as a detective and foreshadows that this is the case he will be investigating. Matthew's thoughts about death and dying literally reference his presence at his father's funeral. However, the word "haunted" references the guilt he feels for not seeing his father before he died and the pain he feels by being back in the crumbling society of the Brethren (1).

He'd left the window down and now he could hear the surf on the beach and the cry of a herring full, the sound naturalists named the long call, the cry which sounded to him like an inarticulate howl of pain.
-- The Narrator from Matthew's Perspective (chapter 1)

Importance: These are Matthew's thoughts as...