My Soul to Keep (African Immortals, #1)

by Tananarive Due

That’s the difference between us and white folks, she told herself. They don’t stop to say “I can’t” or “Should I,” they just do. And it was a skill, sooner or later, she would need to pick up despite herself.

The body heals itself, but the mind does not.

Oh, sweet Adele, Dawit thought, I would build a Heaven for you if it meant you could rest there. I would gather the bricks and carry them on my shoulders, if only you could be at peace.

she collected sorrows and put them in her pocket. Walking around with them that way, by and by, you just learn to carry them all a bit better, to stand up a bit straighter.

We only waste energy to have horrible fights with the people we love the most.

I thought I knew grief. But until you have witnessed the death of a loved one to another man’s violence, you know nothing of grief.

But there wasn’t even a word for her. Nobody had thought to make one up. Some feelings couldn’t even be put in a dictionary. No wonder people say they wish they could die, she thought. No wonder.

Wow