Engrossed Reader

“So, he agreed: I would be exiled, and fostered in another man’s kingdom. In exchange for my weight in gold, they would rear me to manhood. I would have no parents, no family name, no inheritance. In our day, death was preferable. But my father was a practical man. My weight in gold was less than the expense of the lavish funeral my death would have demanded.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Fuck… you’re insane.” “Yeah, but I’m your kind of insane now,” I murmur. “You still green, baby?” A beat of silence, then a sleepy hum. “Greener than the fucking Grinch.”
― Avery Collins, Dirty Hit

“Different languages; same story. “Everything wrong with you was put there by someone else.”
― Avery Collins, Dirty Hit

“In our countries, a man often took a wife before his beard was fully fledged. How much earlier then, did he take a serving girl? It was expected; very few men came to their marriage beds without having done so. Those who did were unlucky indeed: too weak to compel, too ugly to charm, and too poor to pay.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles