The Good Earth (House of Earth, #1)

by Pearl S. Buck

Words were to her things to be caught one by one and released with difficulty.

He lived in the rich city as alien as a rat in a rich man’s house that is fed on scraps thrown away, and hides here and there and is never a part of the real life of the house.

she perceived everything more quickly than speech could be made about it,

And he laughed again at what he had thought of to say,

every man has his troubles and I must make shift to live with mine as I can,

Now five years is nothing in a man’s life except when he is very young and very old,