The Great Believers

by Rebecca Makkai

“You’ll never know anyone’s marriage but your own. And even then, you’ll only know half of it.”

“Every time I’ve gone to a gallery, the rest of my life, I’ve thought about the works that weren’t there. Shadow-paintings, you know, that no one can see but you. But there are all these happy young people around you and you realize no, they’re not bereft. They don’t see the empty spaces.”