“They wound their way through a labyrinth of streets, partly following their noses, partly the orientation of the map. Jardines, Mirasol, Cruz, Puentezuelas, Capuchinas...Each word held its magic. They were like brushstrokes painting the landscape of the city, each one helping to build up a picture of the whole.”

“The sun rose, the moon saturated the night sky with its silver light and the stars blazed, indifferent to the events happening below them.”

“After the endless disappointing cups of Nescafé, served as though the tasteless dissolving granules of instant coffee were a delicacy, Alexis felt no cup of coffee had ever tasted as powerful and delicious as this. It seemed that nobody had the heart to tell the Greeks that Nescafé was no longer a novelty – it was this old-fashioned thick and treacly fluid that everyone, including her, craved.”

“The parrot had a range of phrases. His own name ('Niko, Niko'), the name of his original owner and now 'Stavros'. Occasionally he would also say 'Panagia mou', which could be an expression of piety but also a gentle expletive, depending on how it was said. With the parrot it was hard to tell. It did not sound pious.”

“De siste ti årene hadde Hellas opplevd minst et dusin statskupp og nesten dobbelt så mange regjeringer, og pendelen hadde fortsat å svinge mellom tilhengere og motstandere av monarkiet. Monarkiets være eller ikke være var et evig tema for stridigheter og debatt i Hellas. I 1920, da kong Alexander døde av et apebitt, vendte faren hans hjem fra eksil, bare for å bli kastet ut av landet igjen to år senere. Han ble erstattet av sin eldste sønn, Georg, som i sin tur måtte tre av mot slutten av det neste året. Kong Georg hadde levd i eksil i nesten tolv år da han kunne vende tilbake til tronen etter en manipulert folkeavstemning.”

“I realized it was like a dating agency: the ions are the lost souls looking for mates; the electrolyte is the agency that can help them find each other.”

“Part of her—a small but defiant part, the part that still remembered her girlhood fantasies—desperately wanted to trust him, but the stronger part remembered how he had thoughtlessly cast her aside. “We can’t always have what we want, Marcus. You must accustom yourself to disappointment.” As I have. The unspoken words hung between them.Marcus’ mouth twitched. “But there you are wrong, my love. I always get what I want.”