Status Updates From Il silenzio delle ragazze

“It wasn’t comfortable, but it was reassuring, reminding me of the sea and the beach - and the girl I’d once been and could never be again.”

“For the first and only time in my life, I was glad my mother was dead.”

“I didn’t feel like anything that might have a name.”

“Forget. So there was my duty laid out in front of me, as simple and clear as a bowl of water: Remember.”

“Keeping my face carefully expressionless, I looked at Nestor and thought: I will hate you till my last breath.”

“I had no reason to love her, but what made me angry at that moment was that in allowing herself to dwindle until she was nothing more than a heap of creased flesh and jutting bone, she’d left me with so very little to hate.”

“Perhaps if they realised we’re not the gentle creatures they take us for their own peace of mind would be disturbed?”

“For once, women with sons envied those with daughters, because girls would be allowed to live.”

“Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles… How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him ‘the butcher’.”