“for the first time since the fire, my worries are gone. I feel a joy so strong it’s almost painful—a knife’s edge… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“I skip down the driveway, hurry up the road, linger on the bridge for a moment, looking down at the reflection of… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“When she leaves, I inspect my reflection in the mirror—the first time since arriving in Minnesota I’ve looked in a whole piece… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Options. She can sleep with the door open, wander around freely, come and go without someone watching her every move. She hadn’t… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“she takes a deep breath and runs a finger under the chain around her neck. “My dad gave me these charms, and… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“I wonder, not for the first time, if shame and pride are merely two sides of the same coin.” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Mr. Grote shows me how he grows wild rice in the stream and collects the seeds. The rice is nutty and brown. He plants… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“I try to forget the horror of what happened. Or—perhaps forget is the wrong word. How can I forget? And yet how can I… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“don’t know how much of my memory of this time is affected by my age now and how much is a result of the… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“The stark gray sky and bare tree limbs feel more suited to her than the uncomplicated promise of sunny spring days.” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Sometimes these spirits have been more real to me than people, more real than God. They fill silence with their weight, dense and warm,… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Every Easter she and her mother planted those crocuses near the fence beside the driveway, and soon enough a whole cluster of them, white… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Mr. Kaminski pulled a chain hanging from the pressed-metal kitchen ceiling, and light seeped from a bulb, casting a wan glow over a scarred… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Before we leave the gravesite, Mary sings Mother's favorite gospel hymn ... Mary's lovely voice rises and lingers in the air, and by the… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“for the first time since the fire, my worries are gone. I feel a joy so strong it’s almost painful—a knife’s edge of joy.” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“What was it the teacher in her Legal Issues class said the other day? Never bring up a point you don’t have an answer… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Mrs. Scatcherd raps Dutchy's knuckles several times with a long wooden ruler, though it seems to me a halfhearted penalty. He barely winces, then… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“(There are many ways to be crippled, I’ve learned over the years, many forms of paralysis.)” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“This girl may never go anywhere. She should at least know that adventure is in her bones.” When” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“only link we had to our future was a name scrawled on a piece of paper my father tucked in his shirt pocket as… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
