There’s a sound to breaking waves when they’re close, a sound like nothing else. The background roar is unmistakable, overlaid by the swash of the landing wave and then the sucking noise of the backwash as it retreats.
-- Ray (Prologue)

Importance: This sentence opens the memoir and it sets the tone for the story to follow. This passage demonstrates the level of descriptiveness in which the author describes nature, which plays a large role in the healing journey of Ray and her husband.

We held our breath, and then it came: a claim for possession of our home, of the house and the land, of every stone we had carefully placed, the tree where the children played, the hole in the wall where the blue tits nested, the loose piece of lead by the chimney where the bats lived.
-- Ray (chapter 2)

Importance: This passage demonstrates the importance that the idea of "home" has in...