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That’s what books were for, after all. They were passageways to other worlds, other realities, other lives one could imagine living.
“I know it’s sometimes hard to believe the best. Isn’t it better than believing the worst, though?”
have you read this book yet? Les Enfants du capitaine Grant?”
“By Jules Verne? Yes,
when things seem darkest, the...
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she had recognized a kindred spirit, another dreamer who lost and found herself in books.
The way he kissed her made her feel, impossibly, as if he’d always known her, perhaps better than she’d known herself.
No one had ever kissed Eva like that before, like they knew her inside and out.
“It’s impossible to ever really know anyone. Can you even say you know yourself?”
When you loved someone, you didn’t abandon him.
“And in the midst of a war like this, you realize that family is more than just blood.
You can’t judge a person by their language or their place of origin—though it seems that each new generation insists upon learning that lesson for itself.
Once you’ve fallen in love with books, their presence can make you feel at home anywhere, even in places where you shouldn’t belong.
We have to save those we can—because we couldn’t save the people we loved.”
“I feel the same about the past. We can’t blame ourselves, though. We can only take the responsibility of preventing the same things from happening to others.”
“Sometimes, it’s still hard to feel as if we’re part of any meaningful resistance. There are days when I forget there’s a whole world outside these walls.”
It is exactly the way Herbert Marshall stares at Claudette Colbert in Zaza.”
you look at him the way Claudette Colbert looks at Herbert Marshall, too. You’re Zaza and he’s Dufresne.”
I want to remind you that God knows who you are. He always has and always will. He sees your hearts, even in the darkness.”
I’ll go wherever you are.”
“You must be brave, and you must believe that God is watching you.
God is with you,
“I think he understands what love looks like,”
“Name a place that’s special to you.”
“There’s a library in Paris called the Mazarine,”
Mazarine was always my favorite.
“You know, I used to imagine that I’d get married one day to a prince, right there on the library’s steps.”
it’s part of the Palais de l’Institut de France, on the Left Bank.”
Was it possible that the prince she had dreamed of so often as a little girl had been right there all along?
The coincidence felt extraordinary—fate rather than chance.
“I used to think that memories were less painful when you held them close.
Now I think pain loses its power when we share it.”
“You said you used to dream of getting married there.”
“It sounds silly now, I know.”
“Got married. On the steps of the Mazarine Library.”
It was a terrible idea to live a life dictated by someone else’s prejudices.
“Family means everything, and right now, your family is broken.”
“You’ll still come back for me? After the war?”
“Of course I will. I’ll meet you on the steps of the Mazarine, and then the rest of our lives can begin.”
“Ani l’dodi v’Dodi li,” she...
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“What does tha...
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“It’s Hebrew for ‘I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.’ It’s from Shir Hash...
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It’s—it’s something people say when they marry, to promise e...
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Ani l’dodi v’Dodi li.” He leaned forward and kissed her, so gently it felt li...
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Eva dreamed of standing on the steps of the Mazarine Library in a white dress, searching for a groom who never came. She awoke with a start, tears streaming down her face, and it took a few seconds to remember that she wasn’t in Paris,
A church always stands as long as God remains.
“Wasn’t it you who told me that God opens doors we don’t even know are there?
“I’m afraid that sometimes, Eva, that isn’t enough.”
“that traitors will get what they deserve when they come face-to-face with God.”
She began going to the Mazarine Library each day to wait on its steps in hopes that Rémy would come for her,
