"I'll come back for you later. I promise."
This promise made early in the book is fraught with implications balancing on the question of what if events leading to this circumstance had been different or events following it had turned differently. Essentially, this one line sets the stage for the entire story which follows. Both event and emotion spring forth from this single quote.
I thought of Sarah.
The novel is structured precisely for intent. The first half of the novel (roughly) alternates between two different and unconnected narratives: that of Sarah Starzynski in the past and Julia Jarmon in the present. From then on, the narrative focuses on Julia’s story in which Sarah becomes an obsessive player. References by Julia of thinking of Sarah punctuate the last half of the story.
“You’re playing with Pandora’s box. Sometimes, it’s better not to open it. Sometimes, it’s better not to know.”
Julia’s obsession with Sarah is based to a large degree upon not knowing for sure what exactly happened to her during World War II. Guillaume supports Julia’s mission to a point, but a member of a family in which only his grandmother survived the Nazi concentration camps, he is all too aware of the prickly aspect involved in treading into this particular hornet’s nest. His warning will go unheeded, of course, and he will be revealed as prescient, naturally, but perhaps not in the way that either Julia or the reader expects.
“Is this your mother?”
This quote is significant for reasons that would make its inclusion here a spoiler if the reasons for divulged, but suffice to say that the answer is of extreme significance to the narrative. Beyond the question, however, is the significance of the person asking the question: Julia’s 11-year-old daughter. The question is posed at a tense and dramatic moment when Julia herself is so paralyzed with emotion that she cannot bring herself to make the necessary inquiry. Zoë in this moment harkens back to first image presented of Sarah in the book’s opening chapter; a young Sarah who cannot understand why her mother is not being brave.
