Eternal

by Lisa Scottoline

Preserve your independence.

Good advice.

“Take your life in your hands, like dough. Form it the way you want it to be.

I love this metaphor.

“You don’t see yourself as special, but you are. You do what needs to be done, no matter what. You kept doing after your mother left and you will keep doing after your father.

That's the definition of a hero.

He fell silent a moment, and so did Sandro, but they understood each other without words, in the way that only old friends can.

“Weak people abound, strong people abide.”

“There have always been anti-Semites, as there have always been fleas. Both are insignificant and brainless, having no purpose other than to torment their betters.

You know what I always say, not every battle is worth fighting.

She hoped it would comfort him. He would know he was loved, even if he didn’t love her anymore, and she wanted to give him that feeling, for it was all she had to give.

Her heart felt happy and full, and that was how she learned that love warms the heart when it is given, regardless of whether it is received.

War welcomed and concealed the most heinous of crimes.

All he could see above was darkness, impenetrable. He wondered where the blackness ended, or if it ever did, like grief itself, having no bottom, top, or sides, but was limitless, borderless, surrounding him.

His grieving heart heaped one loss on top of the other, and their collective weight buried him.

happy times or the sad, she cried nevertheless. It struck her as a paradox, that either happiness or sadness summoned tears.

Yet he had learned that Rome, as magnificent as she was, was merely a bystander to the glory and horror wrought by man, and that was the way of the world, now and forever.

War was eternal, but so was peace. Death was eternal, but so was life. Darkness was eternal, but so was light. Hate was eternal, but above all, so was love.

“And the title is Eternal?”

it’s about families and love.”