“Reading beautiful books can’t be traumatizing. Seeing awful things can be⁠—but reading? I don’t believe in that at all.”

When my daughters turned twelve I initiated them into the mysterious powers with which women of my family line have since time immemorial been endowed.

Maître Susane knew she didn’t need Sharon’s energy, youth, or abilities, she knew full well that those virtues were wasted in her apartment, where there was literally nothing to do.