Most children have two whole legs and two whole arms but this little six-year-old that Dinesh was carrying had already lost one leg, the right one from the lower thigh down, and was now about to lose his right arm.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The novel’s first sentence establishes a history of loss and signals loss is imminent once again.

Didn’t dying in the end mean being separated from other humans, after all, from the sea of human gaits, gestures, noises, and gazes in which for so many years on had floated, didn’t it mean abandoning the possibility of connecting with another human that being among others always afforded?
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote is one of many moments of free indirect discourse, in which Dinesh’s mental state takes over the narrative. These moments are identified by the use of question marks, and signal moments of emotional distress. In this quote, Dinesh’s...