The Possession of Alba Díaz Quotes

“All she had ever wanted, all she had ever lived for, was the inverse of this perverse imprisonment. To command her own life. To command her own body, to decide to whom it was given and when.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“He was not seeing things. The moonlight on her hair and skin was real, so, too, were the shadows cast by her cheekbones. He could see the lines of taut skin at the edges of those massive sockets, waxen and tight. Her lips pulled back from teeth in a snarl. The glint of spittle on her teeth was real. Invisible hands yanked her shoulders back, one at a time; she jerked and shuddered.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“Just his luck that the sensation of dancing with her had branded itself on his daydreams. She was like a palmful of mercury: achingly lustrous in light or gloom, slipping cool through his fingers. Gone before he could catch his fist closed.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“Some of us are shackled to the world we are born in. We cannot change. We cannot leave.” The bitterness of her own voice tasted like ash. “We can only dream of bigger cages.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“How tragic, to be so ensorcelled by someone whose whole heart was steel and ambition, with no room for soft touch. How pathetic, to be the two of them, soul-broken and quiet in the twilight.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“She would speak to whom she wanted and not fantasize about mauling them. She would maintain control. It was her right.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“A lifetime with Carlos over a stranger who wanted nothing but to rule her life and possess her body? It was a bargain.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“There were gods here, once. Maybe we ate them.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“Greedy" he had said of his family. Rotten to the core.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“I once heard it said that the words themselves are cursed. That the tale, once told, will evaporate like mercury. I can’t know that for certain. Perhaps it will. So lean in. Listen closely. I won’t be repeating myself.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“His greed was different. It buried him in tomes and equations and experiments, for it was a lust for knowledge that drove him to seek more. It was a noble greed.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“Can you imagine if this were nothing but a ghost story, full of cold drafts and shadows where they oughtn’t be, clammy palms and sweaty napes? That’s too clean a tale. Too simple. And this one gets messy.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“There were gods here, once...when we arrived. Don't know where they are now. Maybe we ate them. Maybe we became them.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“He had never been an angel, but he had fallen like one, and would keep falling, through flame and smoke and sulfur, down, down, down...”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“one of her hands flashed in quick motion: fingertips to forehead, then to the opposite wrist. The same gesture Carolina had made.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“The rite of confession continued, and Alba plotted to sin again.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“That was his inheritance, wasn’t it? A bone-deep lust for more, more, more.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

“One must understand that silver and mercury love each other, Juan de Cárdenas went on. They embrace and unite, the one with the other.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz