Maile Meloy

“She craved a family, not having had enough of one to understand what a pain in the ass it was.”

“We have to think of a question that we wouldn't otherwise want to answer.'He stood over the pot, looking down at the leaves. 'Something like, Who do you fancy?''That might work,' I said, even though it was the last question I wanted to answer. But it was impossible, suddenly, to tell a lie.Benjamin took a deep sniff over the steam and turned to me. 'All right,' he said. 'So who do you fancy?'I hesitated. 'Fancy means like, right?' I said stalling.'Of course.'I gritted my teeth against the answer coming out. but I couldn't stop myself. 'You,' I said helplessly.”

“Diabetes is passed that way -- over and down, like a knight in chess.”

“They had started one of those wish-fulfillment kids’ adventure books, where the boy hero has exactly the qualities he needs to triumph, at every moment… She’d been bored and annoyed, and at one point she tried to explain to Sebastian why it wasn’t her favor-ite of his books. But Sebastian had loved the book unreservedly. Why hadn’t she just read the fucking thing with gusto and relished every moment with her son? Why had she brought her adult judgment and professional story opinions to a book her kid loved? Of course the child hero should always triumph! Who wanted a kids’ book to feel like real life? Real life was fucking intolerable.”

“Yvette had never talked about her marriage - she was a smart girl, and she knew you had no right to complain about someone you got all the way to the altar with. You made that choice, even if you were a child when you did it, and the marriage vow was sacred.”