Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker

by Gregory Maguire

Luck and grace: an unmatching pair of boots with which to address a long dusty road.

All paths lead to the same place, and that place is whatever comes next.

You might forget a story, but you can never unhear a story. By that token, you might forget an event, but you can never go back to living as you did before its hidden influence was applied upon you.

“We are all migrants. We are exiled from the place where meaning meant something.”

Was music beautiful because it was full of mystery, Dirk wondered, or was it full of mystery because it was beautiful?

In her six-years-and-some she was already more herself than he had ever managed to become himself in the same number of decades.