When no one is left to tell what happened, family histories keep their secrets.
“All that work: his generous patronage of the arts, the vast sums of money he had donated to worthy causes, setting up charitable organizations . . . for what? In the end, none of those good works h...”
“Eight: the age of exploration, of ghosts and secret forays; the age at which a mystery lurks behind every curtain and every armoire opens into a magical world, which you may enter at any time, but ...”
“Nostalgia is powerful. It is natural, human to long for the past, particularly when we can remember our histories as better than they were.”
“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”
“Then Cassie told her story. The feeling was like gathering up everything she's ever done or felt or known up to that moment and tying it into a ball and pitching it with all her might as far away a...”
“Every woman needs secrets,' her mother said with a smile then, her eyes meeting Sally's in the rearview mirror. 'Remember that when you're old like me, pumpkin, because the world has a way of makin...”
