The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

We were like gods, at the dawning of the world, and our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.

I shouted, into the cupped palms of my hand.

I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell, I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.