Michael’s Reviews > The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels > Status Update

“What we print in the newspaper completely contradicts reality. A hundred times a day we print the phrase ‘We are free,’ but everywhere in the streets we see the soldiers of a foreign army, everyone knows that there are many political prisoners, trips abroad are forbidden, and even within the country we can’t go wherever we want.”

“It is in the summer that death is closest. Everything dries out, suffocates, comes to a standstill. It’s already been four years since they killed Thomas. In August, very early in the morning, at dawn. They hanged him. The disturbing thing is that they start again every year. At dawn, … I go to the window and I see them. They are starting again, but you can’t kill the same person over and over.”

“I’m only fifty years old. If I stop smoking and drinking, or rather drinking and smoking, I can still write a book. Not books, but a single book, perhaps. I am convinced, Lucas, that every human being is born to write a book, and for no other reason. A work of genius or mediocrity, it doesn’t matter, but he who writes nothing is lost, he has merely passed through life without leaving a trace.”

“It is strictly forbidden to critisize or make jokes about our Liberators or our new government. On the strength of a mere denunciation, anyone at all can be thrown into prison without trial, without sentence. Men and women disappear without anyone knowing why, and their families will never hear from them again.”