Liberty Jackson

“An explosion groans to the west of them, and Arrow involuntarily looks in the direction of the sound.
Nermin, who hasn't looked, smiles. 'I think they're trying to send us a message.'
'What is the message?' she asks as another shell lands in the same area.
Nermin shrugs. 'I don't know. I'm making a special effort not to listen.”
― Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo

“A little farther south he passes the Music Academy. The building is over a hundred years old, and has been training young musicians for forty. A harp sits atop a cupola facing the street corner. Between the windows of the third and the fourth floor, a rocket-propelled grenade has punched a hole through the wall. Inside, another grenade has blown through the wall in the main concert room, but still Kenan hears the sound of pianos coming from within. Several different pieces are being played in various parts of the building, and the music blends together, sometimes becoming unintelligible, a muddy noise of strings struck by hammers, but every so often one of the songs pauses, creating a space for anothe rto emerge, and a few solitary notes of a melody slip out into the street.”
― Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo

“It’s disorientating to hear about things in the real world, the other world. That world could cease to be and for a time we’d be none the wiser”
― Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters

“In all my years I’ve realized there are two kinds of people. The ones who hear a creak in a dark, lonely house, and shut the windows because it must have been the wind. And the ones who hear a creak in a dark, lonely house, light a candle, and go to take a look.”
― Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters