And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

by Fredrik Backman

“Those who hasten to live are in a hurry to miss,”

“The only time you’ve failed is if you don’t try once more.”

would rather be old than a grown-up. All grown-ups are angry, it’s just children and old people who laugh.”

“I know that the way home is getting longer and longer every morning. But I loved you because your brain, your world, was always bigger than everyone else’s. There’s still a lot of it left.”

“I miss all our most ordinary things. Breakfast on the veranda. Weeds in the flower beds.” She takes a breath, then answers: “I miss the dawn. The way it stamped its feet at the end of the water, increasingly frustrated and impatient, until there was no more holding back the sun. The way it sparkled right across the lake, reached the stones by the jetty and came onto land, its warm hands in our garden, pouring gentle light into our house, letting us kick off the covers and start the day. I miss you then, darling sleepy you. Miss you there.”

“Noahnoah, promise me something, one very last thing: once your good-bye is perfect, you have to leave me and not look back. Live your life. It’s an awful thing to miss someone who’s still here.”

“He’s not angry at you, he’s angry at the universe. He’s angry because your enemy isn’t something he can fight.”

“Darling obstinate you. It’s never too late to ask your son about something he loves.”