"For hundreds of years, the people of this village pushed nature back from its precincts. It has taken less than a year to begin to reclaim its place." P. 11

"George Viccars lay with his head pushed to the side by a lump the size of a newborn piglet, a great, shiny, yellow-purple knob of pulsing flesh." P. 42

"She was a rare creature, Anys Gowdie, and I had to own that I admired her for listening to her own heart rather than having her life ruled by others' conventions." P. 55

"'If God saw fit to send this scourge, I believe it would be His will that one face it where one is, with courage, and thus contain this evil."" P. 62

"My Tom died as babies do, gently and without complaint. Because they have been such a little time with us, they seem to hold to life but weakly." P...