“But coming close wasn't the same as winning, was it? ... He had won because winners won and everyone else just went home”

“And suddenly, just like that, hope became knowledge. I was going to win. It was just a matter of when.”

“In the end, the world always wins. That's just the way of things.”

“Hassan still had not come back when night fell and moonlight bathed the clouds. Sanaubar cried that coming back had been a mistake, maybe even a worse one than leaving. But I made her stay. Hassan would return, I knew. He came back the next morning, looking tired and weary, like he had not slept all night. He took Sanaubar's hand in both of his and told her she could cry if she wanted to but she needn't, she was home now, he said, home with her family. He touched the scars on her face, ran his hand through her hair...Sometimes, I would look out the window into the yard and watch Hassan and his mother kneeling together, picking tomatoes or trimming a rosebush, talking. They were catching up on all the lost years, I suppose. As far as I know he never asked where she had been or why she left and she never told. I guess some stories do not need telling. ”

“And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”

“Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn’t look forced. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too”

“In a British accent, he tells me his name is Dr.Nawaz, and suddenly I want to be away from this man, because I don't think I can bear what he has come to tell me. He says the boy had cut himself deeply and had lost a great deal of blood and my mouth begins to mutter that prayer again: La illaha ila Allah, Muhammad u rasul ullah.They had to transfuse several units of red cells─How will I tell Soraya?Twice, they had to revive him─I will do namaz, I will do zakat. They would have lost him if his heart hadn't been young and strong─ I will fast.He is alive.”