Jessica Shattuck

“her dearest friends were like dreams she had woken from. How had she missed so much?”

— Jessica Shattuck

“soft, moist air and bouts of low pressure blamed for headaches and illnesses and despair. A brisk autumn wind blew off the…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Only when we prove that international law and the human rights of all mankind are greater than any villain can we vanquish…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Americans can face the world with open arms, Marianne had once said, because the world hasn’t yet come to knock it down.”

— Jessica Shattuck

“They were too steeped in Hitler’s rhetoric, too cowardly, too implicated in the horrors of his war to reject him.”

— Jessica Shattuck

“expedience could not take precedence over the pursuit of justice.”

— Jessica Shattuck

“What does it take for a person to be able to recognize evil as it unfolds? To see with foresight and acuity .”

— Jessica Shattuck

“This music had been played and heard before and would be again, not only here in this church, but in places all…

— Jessica Shattuck

“The child exasperated Marianne with her endless obsession with possession. She seemed to have absorbed the national sense of aggrievement, as if…

— Jessica Shattuck

“For so long Marianne and Albrecht and many of their friends had known Hitler was a lunatic, a leader whose lowbrow appeal…

— Jessica Shattuck

“And it means reasonable citizens must take action,” Connie continued. “We are not all thugs and villains. But we will become these,…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Hitler was a lunatic, a leader whose lowbrow appeal to people’s most selfish, self-pitying emotions and ignorance was an embarrassment for their…

— Jessica Shattuck

“They had watched him make a masterwork of scapegoating Jews for Germany’s fall from power and persuade his followers that enlightenment, humanity,…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Martin was swept up in the sound—no longer blood and bone, frozen feet and hungry belly, but an empty vessel filling with…

— Jessica Shattuck

“They had wrung their hands over his dangerous conflations, his fervor, and his lack of humanity. But Freddy Lederer’s account was something…

— Jessica Shattuck

“She was her own kind of dreamer, a blind mathematician skating along the thin surface of life, believing in the saving power…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Above Ania, the moon is nearly full and the stars are as bright as always. Cassiopeia, Orion, Arachne...The names of the constellations…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Years later, as a professor, Martin would try to find the words to articulate the power of togetherness in a world where…

— Jessica Shattuck

“There is not enough air in the room for Marianne and Elizabeth to share. They have learned this the hard way, but…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Benita set the letter down. Connie - her dear Connie, whom she had never even said good-bye to. Whom she had hated…

— Jessica Shattuck

“For so long Marianne and Albrecht and many of their friends had known Hitler was a lunatic, a leader whose lowbrow appeal…

— Jessica Shattuck

“In the future, Martin will recall this night as the first time -- and one of the only times -- he ever…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Martin will recall this night as the first time--and one of the only times--he ever saw Germans crying in public, not at…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Germany was being run by a loudmouthed rabble-rouser, bent on baiting other nations to war and making life miserable for countless innocent…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Instead she squeezes Mary’s arm and appreciates her kindness. Her understanding. This is why people have children, even when they believe the…

— Jessica Shattuck

“Yet here they were, carrying groceries, holding children’s hands, turning their collars up against the wind. As if their moments of truth—the…

— Jessica Shattuck